Labyrinth of War
by SilverGate555
Summary: The battle between the forest folk and the humans begins again, and deathly monsters are seeking to ruin Etria. Unfinished business still haunts the government while hexer Priscilla tries to brave the labyrinth, mainly for adventure and fame. Her plans become interrupted when her guild becomes a target by the forest folk, and she is abruptly caught into the upcoming war.
1. Prologue

So this is Etria? I really got to admit, I kind of thought that the town of legends and heroes and all that would be more than this small place. I've read stories about the Labyrinths for so much of my life, mainly about the brave adventurers who set out every day to an underground Labyrinth with both hidden treasure and horrors. Etria is near one of Labyrinths, and I imagined it to be a city with grandeur to match the heroics of the people who apparently spend their lives here to challenge the Labyrinth. What I pictured was far from what I saw.

But never mind that now. I was too full of excitement to postpone at all the chance of seeing the Labyrinth that filled my imagination and dreams in childhood. I proceeded to the path to the Labyrinth almost immediately after I entered Etria. The trees around the Labyrinth is plentiful, among them the usual cries of birds and the noises of crickets and all those regular forest sounds. Yet, despite these signs of ordinary life, deep among them was something more than a little far from the ordinary.

I've seen some drawings of the Labyrinth before, but drawings can't really recreate that priceless experience of sighting the actual thing before you. The Labyrinth seems to be in a crack in the ground. In the crack, there it was, the underground forest of my dreams. I inhaled sharply.

_There it is, the Yggdrasil Labyrinth._ My mind was roaring with those words.

Exploring the Labyrinth's contents, mapping every floor, and logging every monster that barred my way never seemed more close or thrilling to me then they did just then. I turned away from the Labyrinth, almost stiff with the amazement and awe I was feeling. Dreams of fame, discovery, and adventure suppressed fears of shame, death, and the likes. I told myself that I would be _the one_, the one who will be renowned for mastering this wild place. At the very least, I would help pave the way for other adventurers with my maps and research, if for some reason I failed to completely fulfill my dream...

But to go there, just by myself? Although I'm an okay hexer, the ferocity of the monsters that roam in the Labyrinth would probably end up with me being eaten alive after some horrible, bloody death. I need allies. A guild. I've always been more than a little independent, but to venture alone is almost a death wish, a risk I'm so unwilling to take. I'm certain enough that the Explorer's Guild back at Etria help with these sort of things. I can't be a leader, that just isn't my thing. So I have to apply over there for a guild, and soon enough I'll be accepted. Even if I share some fame, my future maps and research of the Labyrinth will give me proper acknowledgment, right? As for my chances of getting accepted, hexers such as myself _are _kind of rare, after all...

* * *

**Author's Note**

I didn't add this Author's Note before, when I first published this story, but the chapters are usually MUCH longer than this first one. This "chapter" would be better compared as a prologue than an actual chapter.

Keep that in mind, and keep reading. :)


	2. New Guild

Apparently, they say in Etria that you could tell if adventurers are beginners by the state of their equipment. As a rule, the newer the equipment is, the newer the adventurer.

I didn't even need that saying to know that I got into a beginning guild.

I mean, I wasn't expecting to be in an advanced guild, because I'm not very powerful, but this guild is so new that they need to start on the initiation mission the government of Etria gives out to total beginner guilds.

The leader is a protecter named Nicodemus. He has tousled brown hair, a steel spear that's actually a bit worn, and an upbeat smile. His age seemed to be of a teenager or something. We were waiting in the inn for one of our members to arrive, and while waiting Nicodemus was sharpening his spear in care. Upon further questioning, he admits that the spear in his possession was once his older brother's. I decided not to question him further, and turned to the rest of my teammates.

Hilda is a medic, and looked rather naïve and young with her petite figure and red hair in pigtails. She wore a simple red dress with white frills on it. Her eyes were a dark green, and were focused primarily on the inn's wooden floor, or her bag, which evidently held her staff and other medic related materials. Though she seemed a bit unapproachable, I inquired to her about her age. Hilda looked startled by the question, and mumbled her answer while grabbing some herbs to prepare for the labyrinth. I didn't hear her, but I somehow felt that asking again wouldn't be the best course of action.

The dark hunter in the corner, standing apart from the rest of us, was Cedar. Cedar was dressed in typical hunter attire that complimented his dark brown hair and black colored eyes. His skin was awfully pale. I didn't bother guessing on his age, he was just one of those people that made it hard to tell. He was frantically glancing at the clock hanging at one of the inn's walls, occasionally rubbing the back of his neck. He didn't bother to converse with me when I first came, instead he was introduced to me by Nicodemus. I studied him, and he must've realized I was looking at him because he sat his eyes on me and gave me some sort of sneaky smile. Frankly, he made me kind of uncomfortable, so I turned away and busied myself for a brief time flipping through some of the magazines in the room.

_A new stratum!_

_The Radha Hall has recently confirmed that a new stratum, named the Azure Rainforest, has been found! It is directly under the last floor of the Primitive Rainforest (B10). Azure Rainforest is the third stratum found in the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. It is described by people who saw it firsthand to be like a "water wonderland!" It apparently made the adventurers feel like they were in a forest underwater! Monstrous ants, bats, and among other things can be found here. Not much research have been made because of the difficulties it there is in exploring in, considering the danger of the monsters that reside there. _

_More research will be known in time!_

There. A new stratum has been discovered, and I haven't made a step into the first stratum. I'm running out of time. I have to be one that makes to the last floor first, who made the most contributions. These thoughts seemed kind of selfish and self centered to me, even in my head, so I didn't dare mention them out loud. I turned to Nicodemus, who seemed to me the most willing to talk.

"Nicodemus?"

"Yeah?"

"What exactly is the Radha Hall?"

The dark hunter, Cedar, scoffed. "You don't even know what the Radha Hall is?"

I frowned. "I'm sorry, but I just came to Etria a couple days ago."

Nicodemus tried to explain the Radha Hall was to me. "It's Etria's government, see? They are the people who control Etria's soldiers and stuff like that. Rules are made there. They help the Explorer's Guild and all kind of explorer type related stuff."

"Okay..." I decided to ask something else. "Um, who are waiting for?"

Nicodemus leaned forward. "My friend, Aidan! He's a landsknecht. He'll be back from the mansion any minute now."

Hilda's eyes widened. "Whoa, mansion?" By now, it was obvious to me that she and Cedar were both new to the guild as well.

"Yup!" Nicodemus exclaimed, his eyes shining. "Okay, so my older brother has a mansion that we could use. We could use like a guild house! He did, anyways."

"You're rich?" I asked.

Nicodemus placed down his spear. "Um, it's kind of complicated... So, my brother, he's one of those highlanders, you know? He used to have a guild, and one of the people in it were super rich and bought a mansion. Anyways, they don't use it anymore, so... yeah..." He got back to sharpening his spear. "Universal Guild is going to use it now. That's, um, our guild's name by the way..." Nicodemus stopped sharpening his spear and placed it down yet again. He looked down, and started playing with his hands. "Sorry, I'm just kind of...new with this."

Cedar turned away again. Hilda resumed to "prepare" her medicine, which I felt was simply her taking things out of her bag, fingering them, and placing them back. I didn't want to read a magazine again. I focused on the rug on the floor, and then Aidan came.

He must've Aidan, for when he arrived Nicodemus stood up and Hilda stumbled with her medicine, before slamming her staff in her bag and standing up, blushing. Hilda came before me, Cedar after, and by the time I came Aidan left. Aidan's hair color was peculiar, being a strange light shade of blue. His eyes were a peculiar shade of color also, them being a brown that was too similar to orange. I already knew he was a landsknecht by Nicodemus' past comment on him, and Aidan seemed to be around my level in skill while the rest of the guild members were more of total beginners. In age, he seemed to be around mine as well while with the others, particularly a certain medic and dark hunter, it was harder to tell of their ages. Aidan had that same cherry air around him as Nicodemus, and he clasped a sturdy hand on Nicodemus' shoulder.

"Hey, Nico! I brought the supplies." Aidan then pulled out some jars from his bag.

Hilda brightened. "Medicas? That's great, I can't heal too much now even though we'll need to get healed a lot..."

"Medica?" I took one of the jars from Aidan. "These are medicine, right?"

"Yeah," Hilda answered. "I-I'm still a little new to healing. I don't have the best stamina... But we'll get hurt, badly, just starting out, so..." She trailed off. She's certainly a shy one.

"Alright! Let's go!" exclaimed Nicodemus. "Everybody get your stuff together! We've got a mission from the Radha Hall to complete!"

"What?" Cedar shouted. "We-We can't go now!"

Nicodemus frowned. "Why not?"

"I have some business to take care of," Cedar replied, all cold and aloof sounding. "I'll catch up with you all later."

"Where are you going?" Nicodemus asked.

"It doesn't concern any of you."

"Well, what if we need you?" I asked.

"This isn't cool, man. You have to come with us," Aidan said. "You're part of the team. Team Universal."

Cedar scowled. "Fine, then. For your information, I was going to write home. But fine. I'll do it later." Cedar turned away, his back to us. I studied him coldly before following Nicodemus outside. Writing to home now, right before the peak of adventure? Well, his character seemed very shady...

* * *

The first stratum in this Labyrinth is called the Emerald Grove. In the case you are unclear about stratums, I'll try to clarify that stratums make up the Labyrinth. If you are already clear on stratums, then skip this paragraph. Each one has five floors. Of course, the Labyrinth is much bigger than five floors. After five floors, there is another stratum. Even though they are close to each other, that doesn't mean the stratums are similar. Each stratum has it's own environment and creatures. When you step into a new stratum, you are stepping into a new world...

We stood at the path to the Labyrinth, the same path I stood before the other day. I felt excitement bursting in me, and my fingers tightened on my dagger.

"This is the Labyrinth?" asked Hilda.

"Yeah," Nicodemus replied. He turned to everybody. "We need to figure out who wants to be the cartographer."

"Me!" Aidan shouted, and at the same time I said, "I'll do it." Our eyes met. Aidan smiled. "Uh, you could be it. If you want. Now I think about it, I'll just like to fight."

I nodded.

Nicodemus passed me a tablet that contained a stylus. "My older brother used to use it, but his maps got destroyed a long time ago. He said that he accidentally deleted them. Shame. Anyways, he said that my guild could use it now, since he's done exploring and mapping."

I took out the stylus from the slot it was contained at the upper right side of the tablet. The screen showed a grid made up of cloudy gray squares. Testing the tablet, I made one line appear on the blank grid. A blue line appeared in the side of one of the squares. There were some other features as well, I could paint the squares colors instead of leaving them gray.

"My brother told me that there are enough squares in the grid to fit one floor in the Labyrinth," Nicodemus explained to me. "For every floor, you make another file for another map."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Nicodemus nodded, and he started to walk towards the Labyrinth again. "Let's make our first steps into the Labyrinth."


	3. First Exploration

As I went down the weathered stone steps into the Labyrinth, my excitement subdued to some kind of calm serenity. The Labyrinth, at these floors, seemed so much like a typical forest. Trees were around, birds chirped, and there were small streams here and there. Paths were cleared out for human intervention. Yet, you could still gain that sense that the _smell _of the place was different, having a mustier smell. The overall forest was thicker, and the feeling of being watched seemed inevitable. I became aware that any minute now, we could get attacked by monsters.

Anxiety suddenly stabbed at my heart. I backed away, lingering at the steps while the others moved on. Nicodemus noticed and gestured for me to come forward. I jogged a little to catch up with everybody else. Once I caught up, Cedar smirked at me. I tensed. _Now what?_

"Aren't you supposed to map the place?" he asked.

Flushing, I silently agreed with the truth in his words and took out the tablet Nicodemus gave me. I turned the power on, and the gray grid showed up on the screen. Taking out the stylus, I surveyed the area around me. Blue lines coursed from my stylus onto the tablet, and I drew walls and digitally painted green tiles. Further examination showed that I can a picture of a staircase onto the grid. I did this quickly, then realizing that I was making too many mistakes. Muttering to myself, I edited my map while trailing behind the others, occasionally backtracking to fix something.

It was like that for a while. Nicodemus and Aidan made some small talk, while Hilda and Cedar remained silent. On my part, I did the map as well as I could, keeping in mind that our mission is to finish a map of most of the first floor. It would be my fault if we messed up and couldn't get recognized by the Radha Hall.

Cedar straightened, something rare considering his usual terrible posture. "Something's coming."

Aidan unsheathed his dagger. Hilda, looking down as usual, looked up. On his part, Nicodemus looked around, his face brightening. I was looking up halfheartedly when we found our first opponents.

Three pink colored rats.

I squinted. "Are those rats... pink?"_  
_

Aidan turned to me. "A lot of the animals in the Labyrinth are actually, well, mutants. Weird things happen to their genetic code, as well as the whole natural selection thing... So... yeah."

"So that explains the color?"

"Yeah. This particular kind of rat is the called a tree rat, they-"

While Aidan was lecturing me on tree rats, Hilda positioned herself in the back line next to me. Her eyebrows furrowed as we both began to observe the battle in form of us.

Cedar made the first strike, attacking one of the weird pink rats with his dagger. Aidan went forward and aimed an attack on that rat as well. Aidan, unlike Cedar's swift and speedy attack, thrusted his dagger deep into the rat's flesh. His dagger emerged, blood stained. I winced at the sight of blood from his dagger, dripping slowly onto grass. The wounded rat limped, yet managed to scratch Nicodemus. Nicodemus flinched, but stood steady and attacked back. At the back line, Hilda finished off the rat with her staff. The rat collapsed in the midst of her sparking magic.

Killing, wounding... I've known that it isn't meant for me. There must be another way. Yes, there is, and as a hexer I have it.

I muttered the curse under my breath. The curse is called Frailty, and it makes the defense of enemies weaker. The curse is an ancient chant in an old language, one that I know about as fluently as my own. As I finished the last words of the curse, I shook the golden bell that is placed on an necklace around my neck. At the sound of the bell, the rat shivered violently. I smiled faintly. The curse succeeded.

The others looked at me in awe before charging back into battle. The rat attacked Nicodemus again, prompting Hilda to heal him again. Cedar chased the rat, stabbing it. I felt my throat grew tight as I watched blood splatter on Cedar;s clothes. I closed my eyes when the shredded rat fell. _Ah...__  
_

Nicodemus and Aidan took care of the other rat, and it too fell. I fingered my bell absentmindedly. _No, no, no..._I thought that I felt a bit dizzy. I kept glancing at the others, who seemed unaffected by the recent turn of events. They certainly didn't have the same reactions as I did. They stepped over the corpses, and their steps failed to falter. The firmness in their eyes persisted, and they had eyes only for their targets, so they could figure out how to knock them over. They were trained to be killing machines, I realized. They're used to this. Something that I can't get into.

I never trained my hexes to cause death. I cursed small mammals for only a few minutes, just wanting to know if my hexes succeeded for the "real world." I didn't destroy. Not like this...

"_Priscilla!"_

I blinked.

Aidan waved his hand in front of my face. "_Hello? _I've been calling your name, for how long?"

"More than six minutes," Cedar said. I glared at him before turning back to Aidan.

"What is it?" I asked.

Aidan grinned. "Give me a notebook. I need to record the rat we saw."

I frowned. "I thought I was recording everything?"

"You already have the map, and-"

"Whatever. Here. I don't care too much for tree rats anyways."

I tried to consume all my energy into mapping. For the sake of battle, I hexed and went on. The others made messy, beginner kills. Not the clean, swift ones I was so used to in the case of combat for hunting, whenever I went with my tribe back home. I was feeling almost sorry for the creatures, never mind that they may have killed many humans and are mutated to be crazy and wild, destroying the environment of creatures that should have been native, being threats to innocent humans of Etria, they...

No. It had to stop. Once I came to this conclusion, I studied a venom, toxic butterfly newly slaughtered by Cedar. _There. Done. Face it, soon enough I'll see it everyday..._

If I haven't been focusing so much on mapping and my weak stomach for killing, I may have noticed much earlier that my guild had stopped hiking and we now arguing at what to do next. We managed to finish the map for the area we are supposed to do (in better circumstances I would've celebrated) and then we were at a dispute. Should we use an Ariadne Thread, a special thread that we bring us immediately to Etria? Should we trudge back to the stairs? Hilda claimed that we used so much healing, that we have a limited supply of Medica left and that she has used as much of her power to heal us. Without rest, she said, she can't use her staff anymore, she was that worn out. Aidan added that it was getting dark, that we were at the Labyrinth all day, and that using too much Medica will increase our expenses decently. Cedar argued that buying Medica is cheaper than buying Ariadne Thread, which I thought was a good point to make, considering that Medica is the tenth of the cost of Ariadne Thread. And so on.

At the end, we decided on the "trudging back" route. I feeling confident by now, after spending the day training. We even having brought our lunches and everything. The first floor isn't something we had to fear anymore, seeing that we were doing so well on our first day and had finished the Radha mission for initiation. We were doing great! We just needed to get back to our inn and show the map to the Radha Hall tomorrow.

I hummed to myself as Nicodemus leaded us (using my map as a reference). Aidan joked a lot, Nicodemus was especially cheerful, and Cedar was simply happy and smug having things his way. Hilda seemed to fret a little after the earlier argument we had, but gradually she lightened up. The sun was setting beautifully in the sky, and the weather was on the windy side, though it wasn't cold and uncomfortable. My favorite kind of weather.

And then...

Aidan gasped and dropped to his knees, blood streaming down his right arm. Hilda screamed and ran to him. Nicodemus and I ran to Aidan as well, but I found that I was more of an observer than anything else. Cedar went to stand next to me. Up on Aidan's right shoulder was a silver arrow. Nicodemus swore, saying something about the high quality of the arrow, but I was looking mostly at Aidan, who was gritting his teeth in pain.

Hilda sniffed, clutching the arrow. "Nicodemus, hold him, and..." Nicodemus got the hints, and held Aidan firmly to keep him steady.

Hilda tugged at the arrow, biting her lip. "Oh... oh..." The arrow, despite her best interests, failed to be pulled out.

I kneeled down. "Here, do you want me to do it? I've had to pull out some arrows myself." Yeah, from some minimal archery practice back home, but I didn't mention that.

Hilda looked up at me, recoiling. "No, I can do-"

It was around this time that Cedar leaped into the darkness between the trees, outside of the main path. I cried out, and I heard some mumbling and stumbles over there, the sounds of a fight.

"Cedar, what the hell?!" I shouted, standing up.

Cedar reappeared, his hands clenching on his left leg. Panting, he limped to me.

He held up to me a single strand of light green hair that almost seemed to shine in the moonlight, and said, "that's...all I could get before... she..."


	4. Left in the Dark

Hilda moved the pillow around Aidan, trying to find the best position to cushion his shoulder. "There. Aidan, is that better?"

Aidan winced. "Yeah, but go easy on my shoulder, will you?"

We were at the guild headquarters, Skyhoods, or whatever Nicodemus called the place. It was a shady place deep into Etria, in a dark lot surrounded by trees. It wasn't too far from the town, or the labyrinth, for that matter. I kind of liked the place. It reminded me of my home, back at the village with my tribe.

I had looked around the living room in some more satisfaction. Nothing too flashy, the furniture was well preserved, and so on. The wallpaper was in a nice dark red color. Aidan was lying on the couch with Hilda occasionally helping him out. At the other side of the room, around the chocolate brown coffee table Cedar, Nicodemus, and I were talking about the events that happened a few days ago. Cedar and I had some hot chocolate, and I was stirring mine around with a spoon while Cedar's hot chocolate was left untouched on the coffee table.

Cedar picked at the cast on his leg. "They've identified the hair I gave them as one from a Cruella."

Nicodemus frowned. "Cruella?"

Cedar nodded. "Apparently, they are common in the fourth stratum."

I was reminded of the article I read at the inn, and my eyes widened. "Explorers reached the fourth stratum? _Already?_"

Cedar gave me an annoyed look. "They've reached the fifth stratum _already _for your information."

"But the magazines at the inn-" I started.

"...Are outdated," Nicodemus finished.

God, I felt so stupid then.

"Hey, Aidan," I called out, trying to change the subject. "Is your shoulder feeling better?"

"I guess," he said.

"It's great that your own dad's a doc here in Etria," I said.

"Maybe. But I sure didn't like the look on his face when he saw his son's shoulder."

"Well, now we know where Aidan got all that Medica," Cedar said."But shouldn't we focus on the matters at hand?"

"What?" I asked. I know, I know, I'm so clueless.

Cedar gave me that look of his again. "Monsters from lower levels are coming up."

"Well, that's been happening for a long time now," Nicodemus said. "It stopped for a while, and now I guess it's coming back. It's not exactly new, but..."

"I didn't know about that," I said. Cedar rolled his eyes.

"Nobody really knew how or why it was happening, but some people thought it had to do with the core of the Laybrinth. The Radha Hall was trying for a long time to control the situation, by giving missions out to exterminate the beasts that went to the higher floors," Hilda informed me in her soft, small voice. I actually had to lean forward and listen very carefully to hear her properly. "Missions like that kept happening. Then there came weird lights in the sky, nobody knew what was going on, and then...these people went to the fifth stratum, and I guess they made it stop..." Hilda trailed off.

Cedar shrugged. "And that's about it, more or less."

I took a sip of my hot chocolate. "Weird lights?"

"Nobody knows much about it!" Nicodemus exclaimed. "Which makes the Labyrinth more mysterious..."

"Which makes more people want to explore it," Cedar muttered.

Their story sounded odd, but after further questioning they claimed it was recent, Cedar even mentioning that he'd seen the lights himself to which Hilda (quietly) agreed to.

I didn't get to see Etria much before I got accepted into Guild Universal, so I went to visit the town later that day. It was the month of the Tiger. This is the month when the rain begins to fall more, and of course, the cherry blossoms bloom. I've heard that the cherry blossoms had came late this year after a cruel winter, but as I walked in the town I saw that the cherry blossoms were in peak bloom. The air had a sweet smell that the wind carried around. The cherry blossoms themselves were shaken gently by the wind, and gave a more sophisticated to the overall appearance of the town.

The streets were built on sloping, hilly grounds, and the buildings were clearly influenced by an old fashioned European style. I looked into the windows of shops as I walked up and down the streets. The frosted pastry at the bakery, the beautifully carved chess board from the toy shop, the thick hardcover books at the bookstore... They all caught my fancy, and so many times I fingered the money in my pocket, wishing I had more money to spend.

I initially thought that Etria was small, but this closer investigation proved me otherwise. Etria is vast, from the distant hills occasionally doted by farms, to the classy streets. To me, it was had a perfect balance being not especially urban yet not entirely rural.

In one of the windows I passed by, I spotted a boy in a large room. He was standing on a blue mat, using a pole, and was doing some impressive moves with it. I had to stop and watch, he moved me so. He was hitting nothing and striking at nothing, but it was the circular motions he made with the pole that captured me. I got inside of the building, seeing that it was public. Exactly why I bothered to do that, I can't explain very well. I simply felt like it was the best thing to do, and I obeyed these instincts.

When I entered, the boy didn't acknowledge me at first. He kept working on his moves, in front of a mirror that took up the whole wall.

"How old are you?" I asked the boy,

"Nine."

The boy had stopped moving, but he didn't turn towards me. I suppose he didn't have to, looking at a mirror that reflected us both. I saw his features more clearly when he stopped, noting his serious, earnest face and the grave emotion it gave off.

Feeling slightly uncomfortable, I asked him another question. "Is this an academy or something?"

The boy nodded.

"Is your teacher here?" I asked.

The boy pointed to a door at the corner of the room. I nodded to him in thanks, and began starting for the door. The boy continued to practice his pole after I turned to the door, as though I hadn't stepped inside of the room.

I knocked on the door the boy pointed out to me. The words, "come in" were spoken and I opened the door. Inside I saw a man, middle aged, hunched over his desk and writing. The office he was in was plain, and said little on its occupants. Everything was organized nicely. The man halted from his writing and looked up to me. I was too unfamiliar with Etrian customs, uncertain whether to greet the man in front of me formally, or go straight to the point. I decided on the latter, thinking that I could easily give an excuse for the former (e.g. "I was in a hurry).

"Do you give lessons here?" I asked the man.

"Yes," he replied.

I expected him to say more, like most people would, and brag about his services, or at the very least say something about what he teaches or maybe give a brochure. But he didn't do any of that, and I felt forced to ask the next question.

"What kind of lessons do you teach?" I asked. "Do you have a brochure...?"

"I don't use brochures," he said, coughing. "People come here out of word of the mouth."

"Okay," I said. "But again, what do you teach?"

"I teach fighting, primarily with a spear, or with a whip or a shield." He nodded to the door. I noticed that there was a small rectangle window in the door, and from it I could see the boy practicing with his pole.

"What about..." To my annoyance (and embarrassment) my voice kept trailing off. "What about...hexing?"

"Hexing?" The man straightened up. "As in, cursing?" He eyed my casual attire, which that day wasn't of a hexer, but instead of a typical Etrian young woman. "Are you a curse maker?"

" 'Curse maker?' " I said. "Do you mean, 'hexer'?"

"Curse maker, hexer, it doesn't matter what you call it. They are different terms for the same thing. But that isn't the point. Are you one?"

I wasn't sure what he was going at this. I shrugged, thinking that was the safest answer.

"You aren't from anywhere near here, then," the man decided.

I shrugged again.

"Are you good at hexing, or do you honestly need a teacher? Are you Etrian, or not?"

"Apparently you don't have anybody to teach hexing," I said. I turned to the door, my hands beginning to curl over the doorknob. "Thank you for your time."

"Wait, hexer."

I waited.

"The wolves will catch up with you, and you will regret your choice."

I forced myself to leave the place before I said something terribly sarcastic back.

Back at Skywood (the name of the guild house, as I found out by Aidan, is thus) I went in only to find that everybody but Aidan has left.

"Aidan!" I called out, walking into the living room. "Where is everybody?" I demanded, moving the cardboard box next to Aidan out of my way. "I ran around everywhere in this _mansion _and I didn't see any of them."

Aidan looked up from the magazine he was reading. "They all left to train in the Labyrinth after you left."

"ARGH!" I shouted, and I kicked the cardboard box next to him in anger.

"Hey, don't kick that box! My movies are in there!" Aidan shouted.

I picked up the cardboard box and placed it on the couch. "Aidan, they left here you by yourself?"

"Yeah. I blame them going on that Cedar guy. Nicodemus and Hilda were kind of mad at him, but they went anyways. That guy is too annoying. They needed fresh air. Of course, Cedar wanted to come with them, so their plan was busted."

"When'll they be back?"

"Um, I would shrug, but that would hurt."

I sighed, and went to sit at the couch near the coffee table. the book I brought from home was sitting on the coffee table. I was reading it for awhile, until Aidan started talking to me instead of reading his magazine.

Aidan squinted at the book in my hands. "Is that book called..._Pierced Knife_?"

I nodded. "I'm halfway. So far, it's a really good book."

"Isn't it one of those old books they make you read in school?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"So you're one of those people who like to read them?"

"Well...classics are usually good books. If the book's good, if I could understand it, it doesn't matter how old it is. Right?"

"Sure," Aidan muttered.

I thought that was the end of it and looked down to my book again, but then Aidan spoke to me again.

"You don't seem to be around here," Aidan said all of a sudden.

I looked back up from my book. "Do I speak oddly?" I asked him fretfully, my heart racing.

"No, but you said earlier that you didn't know about the weird lights that came up from the Labyrinth. It was breaking news. You must have came from somewhere very far since you haven't heard of it."

I relaxed. "Oh...Right. I came from another country, from a village."

"Oh," Aidan said thoughtfully. "Is it far away?"

My heart seemed to tighten as I answered. "Very."

"How'd you hear about Etria, and knew that you wanted to come here?" Aidan asked.

I understood that he wanted to know me better, but, frankly, I was getting quite annoyed with him.

"I read a book about it. And...I saw it in a newspaper."

The village teacher had a book, the title of which I had long forgotten, on stories of faraway places. I read it, and while I loved it, I was sure that the places described in it were fiction. I kept that book for years, and over the years the front pages came off and the cover was completely worn out. The tales of the Labyrinth along with other places in the book gave me escape from the boring, simple village life and the troubles in it. One day, a few years ago, I saw an Etrian newspaper on a tree. When I got the newspaper, there was the Labyrinth in headlines. And I knew then that one of my childhood dreams can be accomplished.

I didn't tell Aidan all of this, though. I figured it wouldn't have mattered to him much.

Aidan was probably about to say something else, likely to ask me another question, when the doorbell rang. I opened the door, revealing somebody in an Etrian postal service uniform.

The person gave me a clipboard. "Sign this."

I frowned. "Why?"

"You need to sign this in order to receive your mail," he said, waving a thick creamy colored envelope. "It was sent from the government."

"Fine, fine." I thought that if I didn't sign, I'll feel stupid about it later.

I closed the door when that was all over, and went over to the couch. "Some mail," I told Aidan.

"Who's it for?"

I flipped the envelope. In fancy calligraphy, Guild Universal is addressed as the receiver.

The sender is the Radha Hall.


	5. Right in the Middle

**Author's Note**

Thank you, Terron145, for my first review! :)

* * *

Cedar scoffed. "We finally get an official letter from the Radha Hall, and it's just for Priscilla to make some maps for them? Give me that letter, I have to see this."

I sighed. I should've known that they wouldn't care much.

Cedar snatched the letter from me, and read it out loud. "Greetings, Guild Universal...blah, blah, blah... your cartographer has the opportunity to send in maps of the first stratum...we will be using the data to produce an accurate atlas of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth for future explorers...we are looking at common interpretations of symbols...efficient methods of producing maps...blah, blah, blah."

Nicodemus grabbed the letter from Cedar back to me. "They must have liked Priscilla's maps. Cedar, this means that we need to work even harder so Priscilla can get the maps done. We did some training earlier, but I don't know if that would be enough for the lower floors. We should leave early tomorrow morning again and do some more training. Priscilla, you're still better than most of us, but you can come too this time. Maybe edit your maps some more."

I sighed again. "I should had came to the Labyrinth earlier, but _nobody" _(To only Nicodemus, I then quickly made a slight gesture to Cedar with a cock of my head) "told me about it."

Nicodemus winced. " Look, Priscilla, I'm sorry. But not only you weren't around, you didn't need as much training as we three needed...I guess I thought it didn't matter too much whether you came along or not."

Hilda looked from me to Cedar, frowned, and muttered something under her breath.

"What's that?" I asked her.

Hilda refused to make eye contact with me, instead focusing on fingering the crabapple on the table. She didn't repeat what she had said, and Aidan suddenly spoke, taking my attention off of Hilda to him.

"Nicodemus, you do realize that it would be hard to be in lower floors with only four people? I really can't fight with this shoulder of mine." Aidan cocked his head to his right shoulder, which was still in concealed in white casts. "I've talked to the medics at the clinic, and they say that I was shot by a...supernatural arrow. It'll probably take a while to heal." Aidan cleared her throat and looked at Nicodemus expectantly.

Nicodemus nodded. "Yeah, I was thinking about that. We need to recruit more people, some substitutes in case something like that happens again."

"I like that plan," I said. "Also, it would give us more class variety, in the case that we meet an enemy that we can't handle very well with our regular class setup."

Hilda nodded in agreement.

"Yeah," Aidan said. "There's a lot of, uh, strategical advantages we could get with what Priscilla said."

"Hey, Cedar?" Hilda asked, nudging Cedar gently. "What do you say?"

Cedar suddenly straightened up. "What?"

Aidan scowled. "Do you want more guild members to join? Say yes, or no."

"Yeah, okay." Cedar yawned. "Whatever."

"Okay, so that's decided-" Nicodemus began to say, but Hilda interrupted him.

"I'm really sorry, Nicodemus, but can I talk to you privately? Unless you have something really important to say, or..." Hilda stuttered.

Nicodemus shook his head. "Later, okay Hilda? I have something else to tell everybody about. I need to bring them first..."

Nicodemus left the living room briefly, and reappeared moments later carrying around a large cardboard box. For a spilt second, I thought he was going to force us to watch Aidan's action movies but instead Nicodemus lifted the flaps to reveal different colored rocks.

"These could help us a lot!" Nicodemus said, beaming.

Frowning, I picked up one of the rocks. It was a strange purple color, and it was roughly the same size as my palm. "Um, Nicodemus? These are...rocks. Are we saying that we should throw them at monsters?" Visions of stoning magenta colored rats came to my mind, and I shuddered.

Cedar sighed, picking up a silver stone. "These are Grimoire stones. Some people who fight in the Labyrinth have them. Usually they're researchers and they like to experiment around with them. Grimoire stones let you have skills from other classes when you equip them, despite how much potential you had in the other skills before, or what your base class is." Cedar turned to Nicodemus. "Honestly, how did you get them? These stones are new to humans. The forest folk were the ones who made the first stones in the first place, but while they make better ones, the chemicals they put in them are even more toxic than the adapted human ones made by scientists. Only major research centers had figured out how to make the less toxic kind for humans, and Grimoire stones aren't well-known by most of the public in the first place."

Nicodemus shrugged. "My brother's guild had people that were from the Midgard Library. Apparently they knew how to make the stones and taught everybody else in the guild how to make some too. But they said that we can use them."

"Let's not," Cedar cautioned. "We don't know much about the long-term effects the stones can have."

Nicodemus' eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about? We aren't eating the stones or anything."

Cedar dropped the Grimoire stone back onto the box, where it landed with a _thump _against the other stones. "Research for it is still new. A few chemicals that are known to be harmful were made into the stones, which is why they are mainly used by researchers educated on the poisons and whatnot. The stones have dangerous chemicals that we could possibly breathe in. The stones tend to get eroded over time." Cedar picked up from the box an older Grimoire stone, and rubbed an end of it onto the sleeve of his black shirt. After he lifted the stone away, a large smudge of white dust easily stood out from his sleeve. "See?"

Nicodemus looked uncomfortable. "My brother is still fine. Nobody in his guild has any health problems."

"Fine," Cedar replied simply to Nicodemus, "but that's too recent. I just personally wouldn't risk it." To the rest of us, he said, "I recommend that none of you try the stones, but it's your life. Do what you think is best."

I tossed the purple stone in my hand back to the box. "Sorry, Nicodemus, I'll do fine without the stones. I'm okay the way I am." I forced a smile, making a mental note to look up Grimoire stones the next time I was in a library.

Aidan got up from the couch and picked up a stone, muttering that, "Cedar overreacts over everything." Hilda said something about "trying them out," and she placed them into her bag.

"Oh, yeah, there's one more thing," Nicodemus said. I reported to the Radha Hall about the Cruella, and they said that they were aware of the situation from other guilds. They said that the best guilds will go to the early floors and fix things."

"It couldn't be just a Cruella," Aidan said. "Cruellas wield whips, not bows. Unless...the Cruella used a Grimoire stone..."

"I told the Radha Hall about the arrow too," Nicodemus said.

Cedar lazily scratched his nose. "Wait. So the other guilds had some trouble as well? Good. That means that we weren't attacked because of Priscilla's awful smell." Aidan shook his head.

I groaned. "Nicodemus, is that all? Because I'm heading back to the inn. I've got other things to do. I'm done for the day here. Tomorrow morning at seven, we need to be at the Labyrinth, right?"

"Yeah," Nicodemus answered. He furrowed his eyebrows.

I was so sick of dealing with that damn Cedar every time I gathered with the guild. I had better things to do.

I went to the door, halfheartedly calling out, "Bye!" with a sense of dread arising in me. I shook it off. Even from the steps outside I could hear Cedar asking where his crabapple was. I was about to leave the gates of the mansion behind when I heard my name being called. I halted and looked back. Aidan stood at the doorway. He had paused, as if he was considering something, before shrugging his unhurt shoulder and turning back to the mansion.

* * *

I was restlessly lying down on my bed, if that made sense. I had the urge to leave the bed, this tidy little inn, and set out to the Labyrinth by myself. Externally, I wanted to leave. But internally, I felt tired. Exhausted. Cedar was a pain to deal with on his own, but all of them spoke their language so fast, it was hard to understand them at times. And...

Tomorrow, I knew there would be more. Blood will paint grass red again. If I closed my eyes tight, there was a strange dark flash of red. The same color of the slain tree rats. _It's pathetic, _I told myself, trying to toughen myself up. _I really need to get used to it. Because pretty soon, _you'll_ strike the creature down. The sooner you'll get used to it, the better..._

* * *

Besides myself, only Nicodemus and Hilda was at the Labyrinth's entrance by 7 AM. None of us didn't make any comment on Cedar's absence, but I must add that we all felt a sense of relief when he didn't arrive.

The Labyrinth wouldn't have differed from the other day had there not been voices heard. It had occurred to me before that although this is the first floor, we haven't seen other guilds the other day, nor did we see many slain creatures on the floor. I had assumed that was because most people left the floor as fast as possible, and people didn't make loud noises in fear of monsters. Nicodemus and Hilda also seemed baffled by the unusual appearance of loud human voices, so we thought that somebody was in trouble. Hunched over my maps, I led the way.

The source of the noise was large gathering of people. Some seemed panicked, some concerned. Obviously something happened, but there was too many in my way to notice exactly what may have triggered these alarming signs. Nicodemus passed me, and shoved his way to get inside the group. Hilda followed him, but I held back and turned to the person next to me.

"What happened?" I asked.

The person gestured to the center of the group. "Ren killed a very strong monster, and it's not from here."

I nodded, but I didn't know who Ren was. Still, I figured that I'll get that information later. "Which monster?"

The person shrugged hopelessly in reply. I chose to wait for Nicodemus. Nicodemus did come back to me, nervously playing with his hands and looking ill.

"Nicodemus, what-" I began.

Nicodemus immediately began blurting out details. "It was large, and disgusting, and some people from the Radha Hall was there, and-"

Hilda cut in. "There was this large monster that killed a lot, and-"

Nicodemus interrupted her. "So they sent the best to defeat it, right on the first floor-"

"Okay, okay," I said finally, overwhelmed. "I believe that I understand now. Should we leave, then? Before something else comes up?"

"The best guilds are supervising the first stratum now," Nicodemus said uncertainly.

"Then we keep going," I said. _May as well explore now, when the terrain's safe._

The other two agreed halfheartedly. Nicodemus offered to show me the monster, but I refused. We walked on again. I tried to complete the rest of the first floor, besides the part that the Radha Hall made me do for the mission, but I came across a diamond. It was purple, and it hovered up in front of a gate.

I slowly reached out to touch it. "What is that...?"

"The crystal is some kind of protection," Nicodemus explained. "The forest folk added them a longtime ago, when all of the Labyrinth belonged to them, so that they could protect their treasure and stuff. This place belongs to humans now, and there are some keys that are used to open them. I left my brother's keys at Skywood, though."

"That would have been nice to bring," I grumbled.

"The treasure inside the gates is probably already taken," Nicodemus pointed out.

I marked the diamond shaped crystal on the map as a purple circle. I thought that would work since both the crystal and the circle was purple, but Nicodemus frowned when he noticed this.

I gave him a questioning look, but Nicodemus shrugged and looked away. "I thought it would be better to mark it as a closed door. But apparently there are a lot of doors in the Labyrinth, so..."

"It's weird how if you look at the Labyrinth that way, it seems like a sort of big neighborhood," I remarked.

"Well, you know. The forest folk built this place up. I guess these floors could have been where they once lived. Uncontrollable plant growth is why the place is so messed up."

I already knew something about forest folk, from the book that told me about the Labyrinth. I knew that they were a human like species that lived in the Labyrinth, but it didn't cross my mind that they _made _the place. I suppose that I thought that the Labyrinth was a freak of nature, and that humans tried to make the place more civilized for humans by adding stairs and doors and whatnot. To be honest, I really thought that they added doors to keep some monsters out of certain areas, but since dangerous monsters were coming upstairs even with this procedure obviously meant that the doors wouldn't work well in that regard.

"Priscilla, do you know about Floor Jumping?" Nicodemus asked.

"No..."

"When you get a map drawn out of a floor pretty well, once you find the next staircase on that floor you can find a way to Floor Jump, which practically means that you get transport back to the staircases. It's another forest folk thing that humans recently discovered how to mess around with."

"What? That doesn't make sense..."

"It is kind of complicated, but there's these portals called geomagnetic fields. Imagine that they are, um, in the floor and every step you take. They can transport between stratums, and in this particular Labyrinth it's very strong, and the geomagnetic teleporting method can be applied to staircases. That's how Floor Jumping works, when you manipulate the geomagnetic field to transport back to a certain area strong with it."

"I'll keep it in mind."

After that, we walked in silence. Nicodemus and Hilda seemed tense, and they often lagged behind me despite my slow pace due to mapping. I heard birds in the trees, felt a slight breeze in the air, and smoothly reassured myself, so I lacked their extreme caution. The fact that only hours previously a dangerous creature roamed those floors didn't scare me, that seemed to be a matter too far to fret about. Besides, the guilds from the Radha Hall are among us, whether we knew it or not. Okay, I admit that does sound a bit creepy, but I felt that my guild didn't have too much of a chance for extreme danger with them around.

Though, rarely did a monster attack us. The other day we were attacked far more frequently, though you know that I spent much of that time biting my lips in disgust and digging myself into cartography than look up. Still, it was so obvious even to me that we were hardly being noticed. I tried to dismiss this as good luck, and the fact that famous guilds were in the same floors as us and they were likely all fighting fiercely, but going three hours at a time without being attacked seemed to be becoming more than good luck.

We met them when were at the third floor.

The sun had been dawning to a close, and the smell of the Labyrinth was beginning to intensify. My guild wished to start on the path back, none of us having much desire to continue exploring well into the night. I told them to keep going, that we must be near the end of the floor, and then we would Floor Jump back to the entrance over at the first floor. We trained as well as we could, considering that the monsters seemed to be drawn away from us, but I wasn't much satisfied. Just one floor, I kept telling them...

We were attacked once at the third floor, by some Claw Beetles that left us alone fairly quickly afterwards. The Claw Beetles ended the fight by running away, which I found odd. I thought that only rare breeds ran, perhaps to save their rare linage or whatever rare monsters thought about their breed, I don't know. Nicodemus complained on how much his feet was aching when they stopped us, in the middle of our path. They emerged from a corner, we couldn't see them coming.

The girl's bluish black hair was braided back, both of her hands occupied with a large silver sword. The dark-haired man next to her, draped in a bright red cloak, with his hands clutching his black sword. Behind them was the other two, the tall woman with her golden armor, under which was a sophisticated seeming dark green dress. She had also had a silver sword on her side, and it almost seemed to shimmer a bit in the emerging darkness. The man with the long dark robes, behind of which were strange red winglike figures. His fair hair had long bangs that sloped down a side of his face, and it made him seem more menacing, somehow.

Overall, they certainly didn't seem to be from Etria, or any place I knew. Their armor and weapons were the best I had seen, their faces so startling to me. I had accidentally brushed against the man with the black blade, and once looking up to them I instinctively backed up, pushing against a startled Nicodemus. Hilda quickly moved away as well. My heart felt like it was shaking when I looked up to the man I had bumped, with the intention of apologizing.

I stuttered a strangled, "Excuse me," before gesturing to the others to move on. Nicodemus gave a shaky nod while Hilda followed me, determinedly looking down.

My guild was trying to go around them, when the woman in the golden armor shouted, "Wait!"

The man with the long bangs stepped forward, and it was then we could see a young girl was in his arms. Blood flowed down the girl's pink dress from her shoulder and head, and the girl's eyes were closed. Hilda's gaze was set on her, and Hilda gasped.

"Do you know how to heal her?" the man carrying the girl asked desperately.

Hilda reached into her bag. "What happened to her?"

He brushed the girl's hair away from her face. "She didn't tell me that she was watching near the bushes, and... with our monk is back at Etria..."

"Couldn't you Floor Jump?" Nicodemus asked.

The woman in golden armor scowled. "What idiot jumps down stairs while carrying somebody?"

Despite her obvious irritation with Nicodemus, the woman's voice had a calm feel to it, serene. Soothing, I suppose. The kind you want to use as a voice actor for some animated skit or something.

Hilda lifted up a small, tightly closed jar. "Would...nectar help a little?"

The man carefully placed the girl on the forest floor. Accepting the nectar from Hilda, he kneeled down next to the girl and hesitated. "Do I just...force it in her mouth, or...?"

Hilda held out her hand. "Here...I'll do it for you, okay?"

He reluctantly handed back the jar. "If this does not work..."

"It will," Hilda said firmly, kneeling down to the girl.

Nicodemus sighed. "The girl probably would be at a clinic by now if you knew how to Floor Jump."

"I don't need to hear any of that nonsense," the woman replied harshly. "Can't you be serious right now? This girl is dying."

Nicodemus stiffened. "I can explain Floor Jump to you, and-"

The woman pulled Nicodemus towards her, as though she was embracing him with his back to her. Startled, I reached out to grab Nicodemus away from her but the man with the black blade tugged me back, his sword pressed slightly to the back of my neck. The woman was tying a rope around Nicodemus. Hilda got up, hurriedly taking her bag before the girl with two swords could take it. I didn't dare speak a word, the pressure of the knife on the back of my neck only too threatening. Nicodemus shouting at Hilda, to run, to leave, was interrupted by the presence of the cloth that Kaori started to put over his mouth. By then, Hilda got the message and sped off. I didn't know that she was a speedy runner, but of course the direness of the situation probably gave her enough, with the girl armed with two swords chasing after her. Hilda was fast, but the girl matched her speed. I knew that whoever ran out of stamina first will lose that bitter race.

The man with the long bangs, who was kneeling with Hilda only moments before, now stood up swiftly. "Did we have to do that? The girl who left was clearly innocent to the crimes of the boy, even trying to heal Yumi." Apparently Yumi was the name of the wounded girl, who was then starting to get up and cough after she was given the nectar.

_Now, when should my escape happen? _I wondered. I knew some good curses that'll leave the kidnappers helpless, but it all has to do with the right timing. _The sooner could be the better time, if I wait it's possible I wouldn't have this great of a chance as I could have now... _

"Ryou," said the woman holding a once struggling Nicodemus, who was now stilled from the threat of a gleaming silver sword lingering near his neck. "This has to be done. You understand that the boy will destroy the world if we don't destroy him first. The time with his brother proved that. The boy, Nicodemus, is far from innocent. He has committed crimes against the Senatus, and the forest folk, with the pleasure of the Radha Hall. Sooner or later, Tharsis will join the fight. The quiet girl with him is likely to be guilty as well." Everybody but Nicodemus looked at me accusingly at the last part. On my part, not only I am not guilty of anything significant, I felt like the woman was extremely judgmental considering that I was probably around her for ten minutes at _most. _

"Kaori!" Ryou started.

The man with the black blade behind me spoke. "You know that it's his fault, Ryou, that my brother no longer comes back home when the summer begins."

Kaori whispered,"Isamu..."

I glared at Nicodemus. He turned away from me slightly. Only slightly, for Kaori wouldn't have let him move much. Listen, I'm certainly not a mind reader, but it was quite obvious that he was avoiding having eye contact with me. Does anybody else in the guild know about what terrible deed our leader may have done? Cedar wouldn't have known, Aidan surely does, don't think Hilda does, I wasn't prepared for this...

_Great,_ I thought sarcastically._ I'm in the guild of some dangerous juvenile delinquent. What now? _

_Oh. Right. Escape._


	6. Tharsis and Sparks

Later, when I told the story, my eyes then drooped, no longer able to face my audience. This part was a confession, a sorrowful one about me taking a life. I didn't mean to kill her, and I hadn't known, until I was a good distance away. Yet, even then, in the darkness of the Labyrinth, I heard the Ryou's cries. The cries had cut into my soul, when the cries became more louder and distinct, and realization then stabbed at me. There was nothing I could do then but wander in the Labyrinth, my tablet gone with only my faint memories of the maps I've drawn to guide me.

"She was already wounded...but...in my escape Yumi was knocked over."

I refused to say more of the story, not only because it was about drawn to a close. Thankfully, the chieftain and the Highlander seemed to understand, and didn't press me on the matter. Instead, they went to the matters that were at hand.

"I didn't know until last week what the last chieftain, Visil, did." This was the first time I heard the Highlander speak, and I was startled by how gruff his voice sounded.

"He...used your brother's identity to bomb a ship over at Armoroad, right?" I said in confirmation.

"Yes," the Highlander replied, looking away. "He was desperate to slow our investigation of the Labyrinth. It failed. I didn't hear about what my brother apparently did...until now."

I was feeling rather uncomfortable then, and I fidgeted in my seat. Etrian etiquette still hadn't caught up with me. I wasn't quite sure whether I should wait for the chieftain to tell me to leave, or should I simply tell them farewell and leave like that. I listened inattentively to the discussion, considering my options.

However, it seemed that I would have to stay awhile.

"Priscilla, would you be able to go to Tharsis?" the chieftain asked.

I blinked. "Pardon?"

"We must make sure that Tharsis listens to our cause first, before the Sentus from Armoroad sends somebody," the chieftain explained. "True, the soldiers there are...well, weak, frankly, but Etria needs more allies if the forest folk and Sentus is against us. We can't spare many good guilds here, and we need to find Nicodemus." (Now I felt more uncomfortable, since I didn't rescue him.) "Your maps are detailed, and we need a map of the labyrinths at Tharsis. Tharsis hasn't fully explored their labyrinths there, so your guild may be the first."

I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. Everybody at the meeting looked at me expectantly.

"Sure, I..." I cleared my throat. "I'll go and explore the Labyrinth there."

* * *

When I opened the front door at Skywood, I was faced with my entire guild-expect Nicodemus.

"What did they say?" Aidan asked me.

I hesitated. "They...they think that Nicodemus didn't commit any crimes, but the former chieftain did. He was going crazy. And the chieftain used the Radha Hall when doing it, and he did the crimes under Nicodemus' identity. Because...he wanted Nicodemus' older brother to stop investigating the Labyrinth and go home for some reason. Something like that."

Aidan scratched his nose. "What did Visil do?"

"Attacked some ships at Armoroad," I said.

"That's an act of war," Cedar told me.

I scowled. "I _know."_ I took off my boots. "Armoroad has allied with the forest folk against us. They might try to make Tharsis against us as well. The Radha Hall must ally with the Grand Court at Tharsis before the Sentus or Armoroad do."

"What about Nicodemus?" Aidan asked.

"Oh, they're going to find him. Hopefully." Frowning, I picked up a half eaten Crabapple.

"Hey, that's mine!" Cedar protested. I rolled the Crabapple back onto the table and turned back to Aidan.

"The Radha Hall says that we should relocate to Tharsis."

That certainly got everybody's attention.

I explained why we had to go. They knew that in the truth of it, I didn't have any choice in the matter, really. The government told me to go to Tharsis for the sake of this land and though I don't know how many guilds they are able to dispatch, it hardly matters. It was also for my safety. I killed a girl, now they want revenge. The others seemed to understand most of this unspoken divulgence. We almost signed up to be ordered this way when we registered as a guild at the Explorer's Guild. After my short explanation, there was some silence among us in considering this, a fragile silence that was broken by Cedar.

"I can't go," he said. "I'm sorry. But this is too much."

I was almost expecting this. "Okay," I said, "anybody else?"

Hilda place her hand on Cedar's shoulder. "You should tell Priscilla about it," she said softly.

Cedar's eyes widened. "How do you-"

"Nicodemus told me about it," Hilda told him.

"What?" I snapped. Now, exactly how many secrets were being hidden from me?

Cedar gloomily sat his dark eyes on me. I glared back in waiting, and he confessed. "I didn't want to be an explorer. My father wanted me to be one, and he paid Nicodemus to place me in the guild. I tried to get away, to be such an asshole that paying Nicodemus wouldn't work anymore."

I figured that explained a couple of things. "Who is your father?"

"The Guildmaster."

I snapped my attention to Aidan. "Did you know about this?"

Aidan grinned. "Guilty."

I sighed.

* * *

Skyships swarmed around the land surrounding Tharsis, their colored balloons floating over the grasslands. In fact, a Skyship resembles a hot air balloon so much I felt that calling it a Skyship is a sort of lie. The night was cool, the occasional breeze being chilling, and almost being somewhat taunting. In the horizon, one could make out the faint outlines of cliffs. Inside a Skyship, I was watching over the dark lands, the pilot Ciaran next to me.

I supposed I should converse with him, perhaps thanking him on having flying the Skyship, which currently nobody in my guild had the skills to do. Or maybe compliment him on the careful flying, considering that we've flown for days and yet no problem had arisen. But frankly, I was far from doing that. In truth, I was feeling so strongly introverted during the flight that a single conversation felt like it would shatter away my energy. I could only give Ciaran a well intentioned thanks at the end of the flight and quickly turn away, as though saying more to him would force me to become completely submerged into a deep pool.

I awakened Aidan and Hilda, and we came out of the Skyship to arrive at Tharsis. I had given a decent amount of money to Ciaran, but when I saw Tharsis I wondered if I should have bargained with him to give him less, despite Ciaran's hard work. Tharsis was a huge city. White buildings with green roofs centered the government building further than my eyes could see. Green lawns were constantly being trampled by people even at that late hour, the trees in the city enclosed in tight places, obviously for the sake of design. In short, the great city Tharsis was what I thought Etria would be. _Who knows how much things must cost there, in that big mess?_ I thought, _no doubt more than Etria, _and my stomach seemed to tighten in anticipation.

It was late and my guild headed to an inn recommended by Ciaran. The name was a real mouthful, Saehrimnir Inn I suppose it was called. The cost of a night, was, to my relief, manageable for my small budget. You would think that the Radha Hall would have gave me some more money to start off, but we weren't planning to spend a ridicoulus amount of time sightseeing. My guild planned to leave early morning for the Mark Grand Court, where the mayor of the city resides. But before then we needed to create a guild.

* * *

Guild Universal isn't there anymore. The leader is replaced, the Etrian mansion deserted, the guide members themselves changing. It seemed to me almost a requirement to start something new.

Unfortunately, I'm so uncreative that at the Explorer's Guild of Tharsis I stammered at the front desk, before finally struggling to utter out Aidan's halfhearted suggestion, Eagles.

The Guildmaster paused, as though he was waiting for us to give a better name. The word "eagles" lingered in the air. Nobody said anything more original, and when I turned to Hilda she nodded in encouragement.

"Eagles it is," the Guildmaster muttered, scrawling something on a piece of paper. He gave me an envelope, enclosed in it a thick formal letter. "This will grant you an audience with the Outland Count. As for your party..." The Guildmaster eyed my current guild wearily. We obviously needed _at least_ three more people.

There was something else. I was going to stay in Tharsis for a longtime, and staying as an Etrian hexer wouldn't help. Even more if you consider that I'm likely not going to return to the Etrian Labyrinth. Change was needed for me as well. Glancing through the registration packet, I saw that the standard Tharsis classes (excluding the classes of Aidan and Hilda) were nightseeker, fortress, sniper, runemaster, and dancer.

I decided on being a fortress. Fortresses are mainly used as a shield, like an Etrian protecter. Protecting others seemed like a good, somewhat lofty, goal, and it meant to me more defending rather than attacking. I had noted that they also have an offensive edge, but I shrugged it off, thinking that I can deal with that part later. Changing from a hexer to a fortress would be interesting. Hexers have a seemingly opposite purpose than a fortress, with the former's lower attack and defense. Yet, I wasn't a hexer for too long. The hexer build hasn't been built to me yet. I was a bit gifted at the curses, but that came from studying the ancient languages well. I strongly believed there was still time for me to change.

Looking over the rest of the classes, my current guild of three decided on a runemaster and sniper. A runemaster is a master at elemental attacks when so many monsters can't take some magic as well as normal attacks. Maybe we would also get a nightseeker (at Hilda's suggestion) since they apparently have good status ailment attacks, possibly could substitute for Aidan while his shoulder healed, as well as for more strategical purposes in the future. Hopefully one of them would have the skills to pilot the Skyship we planned to rent later. To our disbelief, there isn't a single Labyrinth in Tharsis, instead there are numerous mazes all over the place. The natives simply call it "Yggdrasil," the word labyrinth not mentioned. The land dividing the mazes made a Skyship a necessary for adventuring. Considering that Hilda and I (and Aidan, but his shoulder would have stopped him either way) were not pilots of any sort, another full-time explorer has to be a pilot.

Our runemaster was a pilot named Ingrid. There was some information enclosed about her, on that she was in another guild at one point. There wasn't any details on why she left, but I thought that there could be more pros than cons. Ingrid might know more about the Yggdrasil at Tharsis with her experience, as well as fly the Skyship. As for the other two, Arthur was the name of the sniper we were expecting, with Emil being the name of the nightseeker. The nightseeker was joining the guild on an internship, which I thought was perfect. School is out now in Tharsis, and when Aidan's shoulder heals we wouldn't need Emil nearly as much.

I was the official leader and cartographer of the Eagles guild, because Hilda claimed she was too nervous to be the leader and Aidan didn't "feel like doing it" when we asked him. Shoving some new parchment and ink down my knapsack because of the lack of tablets in Tharsis, I forced a grin when I got out of the Explorer's Guild, trying to tell myself that I won't let Etria down with my meeting with the count. The small starting sparks of the war was beginning to flare up.

* * *

**Author's Note**

Okay! This chapter wasn't as long as the last one, which could be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on you. I don't think I can update for a while, playing EO4 to make sure I wouldn't miss anything crucial is on my mind right now.

Yes, the story is now mainly at Tharsis. Unless I plan to do a sequel of this, they aren't going to spend a lot of time in Etria. Etria's Yggdrasil Labyrinth has already been mostly discovered, because the way I view it it's in the first game, so it would have been the first Labyrinth done with. Tharsis is the fourth place and the last, and at the time Priscilla comes to Etria the B3F at the Lush Woodlands has just been discovered, and nothing else has been found besides the two caves in the area. Priscilla is expected to see the rest of the labyrinths for the Radha Hall, because if there's one labyrinth there has to be more, considering the ravine that separates the first stratum and the second.

Priscilla is still very new to Tharsis, so if you haven't played Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan (or it's been too long) and you don't really care too much if there's some spoilers going on, I think you would be okay. Priscilla is trying to figure out things too.

One last thing. If there's anything I can improve on, tell me.


	7. New Mission

I turned to Aidan expectantly. He shook his head in response.

"You did it wrong again."

I threw my dagger onto the floor in disgust, eyeing the monsters I had slain with a small shudder.

Aidan kneeled down and picked up my dagger. "Hold out your hand."

I thrusted my hand out, glaring at him. Aidan pressed the dagger onto my palm and curved my fingers around it.

"That's how you should hold it," he announced.

We were at the Lush Woodlands, a maze north from Tharsis. We were taken there on Ciaran's Skyship. Having to do some deliveries for the Count, Ciaran headed back to Tharsis, telling us that we could return to Tharsis from the geomagnetic field. The Lush Woodlands would be described well by the name alone, with its beautiful forest and thriving wildlife. Though it did resemble the Emerald Grove at the Etrian Labyrinth, the Lush Woodlands was much more brighter, and lacked that shadowy murky feeling the Emerald Grove possessed. I liked it more than the Emerald Grove. Here, I didn't needlessly worry at being watched, and that something out of the bushes would attack me.

In fact, I probably would've enjoyed the atmosphere much more, had Aidan been less strict on my damn dagger hold.

In irritation, I had asked him why the dagger hold was so important, which he retorted with a list of things from "you wouldn't be able to do advanced moves without a correct dagger hold" to "you look weird holding a dagger that way."

"Aidan, don't be so tough on her. She'd never learned to fight properly," Hilda said with a yawn.

I scowled at her, which Hilda replied with a sheepish smile. "No, I didn't mean to insult you! But hexers don't train in combat much..." Hilda looked up to the sky thoughtfully. "You need a proper teacher," she added.

Aidan had protested to this, but he couldn't deny the evident truth in her words. He isn't a Fortress, and can't teach me Fortress exclusive moves. Hilda undeniably had a point.

In despair I looked down, forgetting that the monsters I had recently killed were at my feet. I gasped and stepped back, but my eyes were drawn to the monsters. I couldn't seem to be able to look away. Tree rats and grass eaters were down on the ground, and I watched the corpses of the monsters in silence. They wordlessly taunted me with their injuries. Injuries _I_ inflicted upon them. Not Nicodemus, Cedar, nor Aidan, injuries_ I_ made. In my hatred of my dagger hold, I didn't pay much attention to my surroundings when I killed them. I only knew that I slashed and stabbed, the emotional part of the killing had been gone. Though then it returned, with disturbingly realism, when I was done. And I thought that I could see _her _shadow there, among the slain monsters of the maze. That girl, with the pink dress, Yumi, who's comrades now hate me passionately.

I cannot blame them.

* * *

_Mark Grand Court_

Dipping the pen into the ink bottle, I waited rather impatiently for the damn thing to fill up. A letter at the Radha Hall had to be sent. Things would probably turn out slower than they thought. It seems that the Outland Count has some requests of his own to fulfill before he works up to ours.

At an antique, fancy wooden table the Outland Count sat before us. He himself wore such antique, fancy clothes, wearing an intricate jacket with frills around the collar. An adorable, small white dog sat on the floor near him as we talked, its white tail wagging cheerfully. The room itself was antique and fancy, from the beautifully carved wooden furniture to the dark green wallpaper on the walls-

-And I inwardly cursed at it all as the golden fountain pen I was borrowing for my notes leaked. In a mere ten minutes, the count's fountain pen proved to be less dependable than my steel one at home. As I tried to wipe the fountain pen in embarrassment, the Outland Count eyed my inky fingers before resolutely passing the envelope in his hands to Aidan.

The Outland Count, from his red hair to his expensive dark shoes, seemed to me to have a formal, almost arrogant, air about him. I immediately distrusted him, nobility not being a class I relate to easily. But Aidan had taken to the count almost instantly. While I fumbled with the fountain pen, Aidan explained to the count what the Radha Hall expected from Tharsis, after a lengthy conversation on the quality of fine wolf pelts. Maybe it was the kind of thing Nicodemus and Aidan used to talk about, along with the newest action movies.

Thinking about Nicodemus reminded me of unpleasant things. I wondered if my guild would be okay, even after we got more people settled in the guild. Team morale had gone down tremendously, considering the departing of Cedar and Nicodemus' abduction. Low morale causes tension, and tension causes fights. I hoped that I would be able to surpass that tension.

I turned to my parchment with a sigh. The following lines were still readable:

_The Count requests that we do something for him before he decides on an alliance with Etria._

_A Medium is in charge of the forest folk here._

_We need to give a letter to a Medium in a labyrinth..._

The rest was splattered with ink. Looking down at the parchment in regret, I threw away the paper into the wastebasket near the Count's desk. My penmanship was very poor, anyway.

"As for renting a Skyship..." Aidan began.

"I'm sure Ciaran can take care of that," the count said dismissively. "The Medium is at the Misty Ravine. I had already had another guild give a letter to the Medium, but I had not heard from them since. Other sources had confirmed that the reason it is difficult to give a letter to the Medium is because she had been, unfortunately...kidnapped."

Well,_ that's_ certainly convenient.

"Kidnapped?" Hilda repeated in a trembling voice.

"Yes," the count answered. "Kidnapped."

"...And you expect us to get her back," I said. "So we could communicate with the forest folk."

"Vessels," the count corrected.

I frowned. "Still, uh, sir. Wouldn't the Vessels have...you know, chosen another leader? Or something?"

The count shook his head."On the contrary, they are determined to get the Medium back. They will not get another leader."

"Could we just give the letter to their second-in-command? Or...whatever they must call it? And couldn't the second-in-command will give the letter to the Medium when they get her back?" I asked.

"Uh, Priscilla," Aidan interrupted. "I'm sure that the Vessels will be_ especially _happy with us if we get their Medium back."

"A cordial relationship with the Vessels is much wanted," the count agreed.

"Right," I said. Well, I tried. But it appeared that even in my guild's current broken condition, we would have to honor the count's tedious request.

Hilda muttered something.

The count blinked. "Pardon?"

Hilda rose her voice. "Can you tell us...how they looked like?"

The count sat a drawing on the table. The drawing appeared to be of a thin, tall woman with skin about as pale as our old friend Cedar's. Her hair was white, flowers braided in her hair. She was dressed in leafy looking clothes, but it was her legs that caught my attention. Although covered by black tights, they were painfully thin and resembled twigs. I wondered how she could _stand_, with legs like that. It was also a mystery on how her head could stay on her neck, her neck being awfully thin as well. The other feature about her was her white ears, that resembled a dog's. It would be something I would expect at a costume party. Otherwise, the woman appeared human enough that I wouldn't take her to be a different species had we met under normal conditions. Perhaps I would think she was wearing an animal costume, but...

Hilda evidently had the same opinion as I did, for she commented,"she looks...human."

"They look nothing like boats," Aidan agreed. "How accurate's the drawing?"

The count cleared his throat and pulled back the drawing. "It was drawn by one of our best artists. I suppose that with more of them around, the differences between them and humans will be more evident."

* * *

At the time, I knew more about protecters than I knew about fortresses. Protecters were common in Etria, and one of the things I knew about them was that they take some kind of pledge to protect others with their lives, hence the name. I'd seen the protecters at the Explorer's Guild, dressed in worn heavy armor and shields. I thought that Nicodemus always stood out when he stood near them, with his new, shining outfit and a light armor at his side. What I did actually know firsthand was that protecters were an Etrian creation. I reasoned that since the first Yggdrasil Labyrinth was found there, naturally their creations were the basis of the others, fortress being one of the newer creations. With this excuse, I scanned through some of Nicodemus' books.

Most of Nicodemus' stuff was back at Skywood, but I knew that Aidan took some of his friend's books with him for some reason. I thought that Aidan wouldn't mind if I looked through them, long as I didn't rip a page or whatnot. The books were unlabeled, or it could have been that the covers were honestly that worn out. They were older books, that were for sure; the yellowed pages reeked of that old library smell, if not worse. Some books were more abused than others, and this showed in their ripped pages. Yet, I knew they were books on being a protecters, because the books I picked up were all in a huge cardboard box labeled so. I shook my head when I found the box. Aidan and his cardboard boxes...

The ink of the print in many of the books were faded, but at last I found a readable book. The jacket was made from a strong cloth that likely contributed to the good standing of the book. On the cover was the faintly visible words, _Voyage into Knighthood._

I flipped through the musty pages in interest. One page caught my eye, this page and the next being beautifully illustrated with sepia ink. I placed the book on a table and carefully smoothed the pages back. The picture was of a sky ship. (I could hardly dare to capitalize that word here, the book made them seem common and that they lacked a brand or trademark whatsoever.) The sky ship was afloat in a dark night, and the constellations in the sky shone in the sky behind it. So brightly, and with much detail, it may have been a sky chart. It certainly could have served as one, as I could recognize the constellations from studying them at the village. At the very least, the picture did not contain fake constellations-the artist's work on the stars was very accurate, for what the night sky may have looked like many years ago.

The skyship itself seemed more complex than ours then, or rather, it lacked the sheer simplicity our standard Skyships were. The skyships had many mechanisms, and being generally ignorant and baffled by aircrafts, I wouldn't posses the ability explain it properly. But the Skyships had guards, real defense systems from the way they were set up, with the protective shields from the sides of the skyship. It wasn't as crude as a hot-air balloon with a large basket and some tampering with it, it was a fine instrument with a curtain of intricate patterns on it, of a country's flag. It represented something, this vast skyship, with its proud, enduring poise, floating in a sea of stars.

I flipped to the next page. The page claimed the ability to fly a skyship is almost required in knighthood to serve the nobility.

Serving nobility? A protecter was to protect, a knight was for...well, I hadn't known much of knights, only that they were dressed the way a protecter might, and that they rode horses. I haven't seen a knight before, or at least somebody clearly identified as such.

"You like the book?"

I blinked. Aidan was tossing something into the cardboard box next to me.

"I guess that you did say that you liked classics and stuff," Aidan said.

"Yeah..." I muttered, placing the book into the box. Then, thinking better of it, I withdrew the book and flipped back to the picture of the skyship. Giving the book to Aidan, I asked, "they had sky ships back then?"

Aidan hesitated."I...don't know. I only brought the books for a delivery. Nico told me to do for somebody's birthday gift."

I nodded. "I thought that the skyships were some recent invention."

"Yeah," Aidan admitted."I hadn't heard of them before either. But it doesn't really matter." Aidan tossed the book back into the cardboard box. "Let's go to the shop for explorers around here. We need to get you some proper armor."

* * *

"Oh, boy, how could I forget?" I said ruefully, looking at the armor in distaste. "Armor. Yay."

"You're supposed to wear armor," Aidan told me. "It's in the job description."

I sighed. "Aidan, I honestly don't think I could _walk _with that weight on my shoulders."

"What weight on your shoulders?" Hilda seemed to pop up right behind me.

Flinching, I mumbled an excuse as Hilda turned to Aidan with glittering eyes.

"Aidan, look what I found!" Hilda waved in the air a light gray stone.

I squinted at it. "Grimoire stone?" I didn't think that people could buy them from stores, not yet, anyway.

Hilda shook her head. "It's called a Pole Stone. It has the ability to take you the last exit, uh, floor, or geomagnetic pole last used."

Aidan shrugged. "Okay. Let's buy it."

Hilda beamed. "Really?"

Aidan and I exchanged startled looks. Hilda has always been much more reserved before.

Aidan cleared his throat, before awkwardly saying, "...sure, it'll be..." He strangled out the last word, "...useful."

Hilda cheered. "Yay!"

This was enough. "Hey, Hilda, did something happen?" I asked. "Something...really good?"

All at once, Hilda seemed to sink back to her regular self, and I regretted the words that had just came out of my mouth. Again in her sullen, small quietness, Hilda muttered something and went to pay for the supplies we had picked up. Thinking about it, Hilda had seemed rather outspoken lately. The time at the Lush Woodlands, at the court... I honestly couldn't tell well whether Hilda had started to be more comfortable with us, or...

I sighed, and turned back to the steel armor, shaking my head slightly. There was so many reasons why Hilda was acting uncharacteristic, but I decided to go with the logical explanation that she'd simply got used to us. Now, I had to attend to the fact that wearing heavy armor is going to end up as my typical attire at the maze.


	8. Ingrid

The woman, clad in billowy dark red robes, carefully curved her fingers around the golden colored handle of her staff. I cleared my throat, and her head abruptly shot up.

"Are you Priscilla?" she asked, looking me over.

I nodded. "Ingrid?"

Ingrid sighed in relief. "Yes. We'll leave to the Misty Ravine, aren't we? The place where the Vessels are?"

"Yeah," I answered. "We just need to do some...adjustments first." I paused, hoping I managed to muster out "adjustment" right, before continuing. "You...can fly a skyship, right?" I peered at her hopefully.

Ingrid seemed stern to me, with determined brown eyes that later gave in to narrow, as her eyebrows knitted at my question. "Yes. I have my own skyship, if..."

That was exactly what I wanted to hear. "Yes!" I exclaimed. "Thank you! We'll leave for Misty Ravine once everybody else comes in."

We were at the Dancing Peacock, a pub well known by most Tharsis explorers. I had told everyone in the guild to come in at a table I reserved so we could gather up there before we leave for the Misty Ravine, where the Medium apparently is. I'm actually not much for pubs, not being a drinker and have always been encouraged not to become one, but the pub was like a headquarters for explorers. Requests were sent there for explorers, and people gave each other tips for exploring the labyrinth. It's expected, really. It's practically a traditional pastime for explorers to drink down their griefs in a pub and give out guild cards for possible recruits.

Ingrid and I had dropped the conversation in an unspoken favor of silence. My silence was being consumed by excitement, her silence being consumed by seemingly nothing. Ingrid simply sat there in silence with a peaceful, thoughtful expression upon her face, seemingly radiating a calm aura as she did so. Once I realized that, I looked at her in amazement. Yet Ingrid ignored my questioning stare and looked past me, softly tapping the worn wooden table we sat at. She seemed almost unapproachable, but I found this silence too overbearing to be comfortable so I said her name.

Her attention snapped to my face. "Hmm?" Her light brown eyes studied me coldly, and I hesitated under her gaze.

I looked down at the table. "I was wondering...your file at the Explorer's Guild said that you joined another guild at one point..." I reluctantly looked up, and I flinched at her gaze. _How am I supposed to lead these people, if they're going to make me so nervous?_

Ingrid turned away slightly, and I relaxed. "It was a long time ago, but the people in my guild...died," Ingrid said with an unmistakably bitter tone.

"That's sad," I said, biting my lip. Then, to my great joy, I saw Aidan approach the table.

"Is this..." Ingrid started, and when I nodded, she frowned. "He can't fight with his shoulder hurt."

Aidan coughed. "You're Ingrid, right?"

Ingrid straightened, and her steely gaze settled on him. "Yes."

Aidan gave a shaky smile when in other times it would have been a more playful snicker. "Oh, well, I...I just came here to meet everybody, before heading back to the inn..." Aidan slid into the seat next to me with a grim face.

I opened my knapsack and gave Ingrid some guild cards I had some days before. "Sooner or later, exploration season's going to be over and we'll need some more recruits. Hand them out when we need more people, okay? There's always the chance that'll be necessary."

Ingrid nodded and tossed the cards into her dark brown shoulder bag. "I'll keep that in mind."

Guild cards are used like business cards. They are given out for the chance of new recruits, requests, anything like that. Guilds tend to share them with other guilds, and more popular guilds could have so many different cards at a time. At first, I didn't want to be particularly well known in Tharsis, and I planned to head back to Etria as soon as my business in Tharsis is over. After a while, when I realized that I may I have to stay here for such an extended amount of time to give the Radha Hall a good reputation for the Count, so I decided to try to be popular and a regular fixture, like the other guilds, and started printing some guild cards.

After I gave the guild cards to Ingrid, another awkward silence occurred. I looked at Aidan expectantly, but he merely gave an uncharacteristic blank stare at nothing whatsoever.

_Me, I'm not much for socializing, but Aidan? What was it about Ingrid that closed him off that way? It can't just be because of that peculiar way she seems to behave, right?_

I cleared my throat and forced a grin. "So, Ingrid, what made you want to be a runemaster?" I still wasn't quite sure about what runemasters did, or how exactly I'll put them in the team strategy, but I thought that I'll find out that along with what a nightseeker should do.

"Oh, I saw some runes and that's how I got interested in magic," she answered in a monotone voice. I frowned. Leaning forward, I inquired more about where she saw the runes. I wasn't about to give in to another uncanny silence.

"In the labyrinth," she whispered. "In the caves, I'm thinking about the Dense Bushlands on this one." Straightening, she said, "you'd seen those dark purple containers, haven't you? With the runes on them, and sometimes you could retrieve a weapon from them..." Ingrid paused.

No, I haven't seen those purple containers, and had never heard of the Dense Bushlands for that matter. But I suppose that the cave's name is self-explanatory, so I didn't question Ingrid on it. Instead I gave her an encouraging nod, and she continued.

"The runes were what I dreamed about, and once I learned more about them, I translated them. I became hungry for the knowledge of the extraordinary language from many centuries ago. I tried to educate myself on them, I took classes for it. To know what messages the ancients raveled in the runes, to know what they sought for and what they found, these are the things that would lead us to a brighter future.

"Naturally, my love of exploring took my attention to being a runemaster and mastering the language of the ancients for battle became a lifelong goal..."

During this speech of hers, Ingrid seemed to loosen the tension that knotted us. She became more free of her words, and her eyes shined as she continued to describe her strong feelings for unlocking the runes of the past. She talked so much that I couldn't be rapt with attention for most of her speech, though I tried to act as though I was. My impatience was finally granted my then dearest wish when Ingrid suddenly stopped talking, and excused herself for some brief moments.

Aidan glanced at me, looking pale and clammy. "I...well, what do you think about Ingrid?" His voice lacked the cheerful, flirty tone it usually had.

I shrugged. "She was alright, but Aidan... You seem upset about something, is somethin' the matter?"

Aidan played with the napkin in front of him. "It's...nothing." He gave me a strained smile. "Really, it's fine. I'll just talk to Ingrid later, and I'll figure it out then."

Giving him a questioning look, he still continued to protest against my concerns and changed the subject to the classic conversation starter-the weather. I decided to just go with it, and told Aidan that people are predicting some heavy rains next week.

_The conversation on Ingrid would have to come later, if it would come at all,_ I thought. Aidan could probably solve his own problems.

A shadowy figure came to our table, and although the clothes were dreadfully familiar, I still hoped it was our new nightseeker.

It wasn't. It was Ryou, the explorer from Armoroad who had thought that Hilda and I could have been innocent, and tried to convince the others that may be so. He could've convinced the others in the end to let me go, if I'd stayed.

Instead I pretty much escaped after killing his friend Yumi.

Ryou seemed to have originally came by simply to give out some guild cards, but when his eyes sat on me he gasped. "You! Yumi..."

I slouched in my seat. I knew that the first thing Ryou thought of at the sight of my face was me trampling over his late comrade, killing her. Ryou and I both became frozen at the moment, both of us more willing to think rather than act. I thought about how on my part, it isn't the best reputation to be known as a killer...

Ingrid came back to our table just then. "Um, Priscilla, I-"

Both Ryou and I snapped into the present moment. Ryou panicked and took my knapsack, which was on the table, and slammed it into Ingrid's face. Ingrid shouted curses as Aidan, who wasn't there when Nicodemus got kidnapped, looked at Ryou blankly. I got on my feet and attempted to grab my knapsack out of Ryou's hands. The bag tore in the process, and I immediately gave up on my knapsack when Ryou took out a book and started reciting a fire spell with it. The flames singed my hair, causing me to pour a whole pitcher of water from the nearest table onto myself in panic. I pushed past Ryou and ran through the aisles. Soaking wet, I kept shouting, "Help me! He's drunk! He's drunk!" as Ryou kept trying to hit me with spells.

I don't believe that Ryou was completely aware of what he was doing, so perhaps he had drunken quite a bit before seeing me. If he was sober, he would've been at least a little more subtle than chasing after me in a busy pub. In his frenzy to attack me, he was careless and I evaded most of his attacks. Our "fight" came to the attention of the rest of the pub, and several people tried to somehow restraint Ryou and hold him back. Ryou clawed at his guards, but they remained firm. Eventually they carried Ryou away, and although his shouting and accusations at me were still faintly heard the rest of the pub ignored him.

Ingrid caught up to me, and managed to warm me up with some weak fire runes while she was describing Ryou's magic with glittering eyes. Aidan came to me, apologetic for not trying to restrain Ryou in time, but frankly, I didn't care much for his explanation. I doubted that Ryou wouldn't have taken advantage of Aidan's bad arm and try to make it worse.

"Why did that man attack you, Priscilla?" Ingrid asked quietly, once she had regained her usual distant conduct.

Aidan gave a short laugh. "He probably had too much to drink!"

"Aidan, I wish, but..." My voice trailed, and I cleared my throat in an effort to stay focused. "That man wasn't with his guild today, but his guild...really doesn't like me." I tried to motion to Aidan that we would have to speak of it later alone. Aidan cocked his head in confusion, but didn't speak.

"We have to go now, before his guild comes to the Dancing Peacock," I pleaded, despite the head shaking of the other two.

"We have to wait for the others," Ingrid protested.

"It doesn't matter! That guy, he wanted to kidnap me-" I stammered with my words, Ingrid looking at me in concern.

"Priscilla, please calm down. The man is gone now," Ingrid said. "He's gone, something like that wouldn't happen again..."

Ingrid's long fingers gently touched my left shoulder, and I brushed her off in fury. "_No! _We have to leave! I'll tell the others that something happened, that we need to join up another time, they'll probably understand-"

"Well, I guess if you really want to..." Aidan said, uneasy. "That guy did seem kind of suspicious, I guess..."

I sighed in relief as Ingrid reluctantly nodded. It seemed better to not tell Ingrid about the issues that started the Eagles Guild in the first place. I felt that more people having to know the story than necessary would be the path to disaster.

* * *

I explained to Hilda later about what happened in the pub. Although Aidan had actually told her before I had, she had responded sympathetically, and told me that she'd already met Emil at the Tharsis College to tell him that we weren't at the pub. She described him "really nice," and seemed to have disliked further questioning about him, so I left her alone after that. She was back to her regular quiet mood, and I didn't want to jinx things with her further. She and Aidan were my only regular supporters, other than them I was by myself. I was hoping for more members in the guild. Even double dippers (people in more than one guild) would have sufficed for me. I hoped that Ingrid, Emil, and Arthur were three more people I could count on. If they weren't, well, it's bad enough being a terrible leader than have to be one and travel with the labyrinth with a sly bunch as well.

As I passed by the post office while heading for the gym, I saw people walking about there, eager to make contact with family and friends from more distant lands. I had never made or attempted contact with my parents or friends after I left my village for Etria. They had taken news of my plans to depart for Etria with disgust, unwilling to listen to my protests that staying in the village isn't my "calling". There wasn't much reason to make contact with them. They wouldn't have wanted to hear about my explorations in the labyrinth or that I was working for the Etrian government. Even a simple, "Hi, I'm still alive," would get them annoyed. But at that moment feelings of regret surged in me, and I found myself entering the postal office.

I wrote to Cedar, because at that moment I had to write to _someone_, to make some actual voluntary contact with another human being. The letter ended up being a scribble of thoughtless seeming words, but they seemed to be something to me at the time, so I sent the letter.

_Dear Cedar,_

_Hi, it's Priscilla. Sorry about the whole guild thing, hopefully your dad didn't force you into another guild. But I guess you shouldn't have been so much of a jerk, anyway. I mean, you really downed our spirits when you were in our guild, you know? You probably meant it, but you should't have because forcing the rest of us into being sad with you was kind of cruel, frankly._

_Tharsis turned out to be great, but one of the people who kidnapped Nicodemus found us at one of those explorer pubs. Don't worry, all of us are okay. People thought he was drunk, and he probably was, but that experience told all of us to stay cautious. You're not in the guild anymore, and they hadn't gotten a look at you, but you should be careful too because we don't know whether the Armoroad's government knows about you or not. Because if they do, from looking at the Universal Guild's records, they'll likely go after you as well._

_-Priscilla_

Even as I was writing it, I knew that the letter sounded terrible. I tried to fix it, rewriting it over multiple pieces of paper, but I was too jumpy and instead impulsively mailed the letter the way it was. I knew the moment I released the letter out of my grip that I should've sent a better letter, at least write a letter another time, but it was already sent. After that, I could only hope Cedar saw it without thinking about me too negatively.


	9. Faltering Leadership

I felt like I left everybody down at the pub. My leadership over them had been fragile from the beginning and I had little capability of strengthening their trust in me. As much as I wish otherwise, I have always been an introvert at heart, always leaving the social activities and leadership to the others. But I knew that if I didn't try to fix the small pieces of distrust in me, the guild would probably fall apart the way Universal Guild did (though, I _did _guiltily contributed to its downfall, but let's just not dwell on that).

I thought about my failing leadership as me, Aidan, and Hilda ate breakfast over the innkeeper's food.

"Before we actually go and rescue this Medium and see everybody in the guild, I think Priscilla should train with an actual Fortress," Aidan told me and Hilda. It was the day after the incident at the pub, so everything from the pub was so clear to me, but the others didn't start off the morning mentioning it so I relaxed slightly and took a piece of toast.

"Yeah, I got to say that I agree with you," I said, heavily buttering my toast. "You and Hilda probably need to learn Tharsis kind of stuff. The old strategy we used in Etria probably wouldn't work too well here, or it could be dramatically improved."

I had to admit to myself, one of the only things that made me a better leader than Nicodemus was that I knew, or at least understood, strategy. Everything else Nicodemus had, like a fancy mansion and an affable childhood friend on his side and so on, but one of the important things he didn't have was the understanding that you can't just attack an enemy with daggers, or leave your comrade to do whatever, and think that's all there is to strategy. Even under Nicodemus, I used my own abilities accordingly without his say. Nicodemus seemed to understand that I could do pretty much anything I want and I wouldn't make the battle get worse because of it, so he watched my acts of disobedience in silence to the point that he simply stopped giving me orders all together. I didn't exactly regret acting thus. Without these acts of defiance from me, Nicodemus may have gotten frustrated with my low power in attacking, and he would have been ignorant of my potential as a weakening unit in the party.

In short, if there was anything to gain the respect of my comrades, it was that I at least tried to know what I was doing, to the ultimate comfort of everybody. Don't just grind, plan smart. My guild would have liked the motto.

Hilda and Aidan seemed to recognize this strength of mine, to some degree. So when I told them that they had to train more, they nodded in agreement even though I could see the hesitation in their eyes of having to learn some of the basics all over again.

"Training all over again with a mentor would be pretty hard to adjust, but you're usually right with these kind of stuff," Aidan told me, confirming my thoughts. "And I do need to start getting back in shape, now that my shoulder's better now." He gestured as his shoulder, recently uncovered. Next to him, Hilda established her own judgement with a firm nod.

I smiled faintly, automatically, not because I was forcing a smile like I usually do, but because these people actually trusted me. It was so much unlike home back at the village, I had to smile. It made me think that things would be different now.

* * *

At the Explorer's Guild, Hilda and Aidan immediately got settled in with new skills. It didn't take long for them to learn them, and although they seemed to be slightly less stronger than they are before (a side effect of the change) they came back to me cheerful and eager to inform me of some new skills they've learned.

For me, it was different.

According to the Guildmaster, I have gotten used to be a hexer for so long, in fact, that it was practically impossible for me to learn things any other way. I stared at the guild master in disbelief.

"You can't be serious," I finally choked out. "I'm willing to learn."

He shook his head. "The ability to merge two fighting styles is an ability long forgotten." At my skeptical look, he added, "Look, I've tried."

"You don't make sense. I don't even intend to merge different fighting styles together." Taking a deep breath, I urged myself to stay calm and to lose the whiny tone edging into my voice. _This isn't the time to act like a child._ "I just want to be a fortress."

"You can't help it, you could pass off as a fortress, but barely. You'll essentially always be a hexer."

The words ringed in my ears, and I swallowed.

I never even wanted to specifically be a hexer. I simply had a way with learning words, had a good grasp of other languages, and then one day the village chieftain asked me if I wanted to be a hexer, because they needed to train more hexers and the majority of my classmates weren't as gifted or as interested. My village was famous to the other small villages because of our strong capability with the dark arts, though of late the numbers of hexers were diminishing. I was willing to be a hexer, because I didn't know any other path to take, but I wanted to be somebody and at the same time not take a boring, usual career like the other villagers. How they taught the dark arts to one like me, an unspoken yet inevitable outsider, reveals their urgency for a hexer.

But at that moment in the Explorer's Guild, renouncing their teachings was far easier than accepting it, being surrounded by the modern mechanism of Tharsis, so I continued to beg to the Guildmaster. "_Please!"_

"No," he answered. "There isn't a successful way to do that, because a hexer and a fortress are completely different in every way."

"I don't even see what you mean when you said the ability is lost. How could it been done then, and not now?"

The Guildmaster hesitated. "An Etrian explorer, I forgot. In Tharsis we do things differently.

"Here, scrolls are able to be read so that we can activate different powers in battle. Most explorers have a set of scrolls to use in battle at a labyrinth. Ancient powers are kept in the scrolls, and explorers may be able to release the power. Naturally, you must have enough power to release it. It is an old process that's hard to explain, but the power to release it is weighed in measures called Bursts.

"The ancients made scrolls for many things, including the way to naturally acquire another class' skills. That scroll is the one you would want. Unfortunately, that scroll has been lost centuries ago."

"Are we really that dependable on these scrolls?"

"Yes, because it is a divine art to merge two fighting styles together. It isn't as simple as it may seem."

"I mean...the scrolls in general."

"A scroll can save somebody's life in the labyrinth."

The fact had only dawned to me personally the moment I left the room, so I went on talking about the class changing.

"As for me changing classes, there's nothing I can do?"

"I wouldn't say that! Improve your skills as a hexer, maybe take up a class from here very similar to it...maybe. I'm not sure how it would work in your case, because the rarity of hexers had led to the class to vanish in most modern countries, but the skills of a hexer are still present in some of today;s classes. If you train-"

"Yes," I whispered, interrupting him. "I understand."

I quietly stood there for some moments, before turning to leave. Above the door was the bloody head of a wolf, and I shivered.

* * *

I sat at the steps of the Explorer's Guild, gazing at the horizon. Aidan kneeled down and sat next to me.

"Still, your fighting improved a lot, so it wasn't all for nothing," Aidan told me brightly.

I looked down and remained silent.

"I'm sure that we'll find at least some hexer stuff here."

"Aidan..."

"What?"

"Why...why are we even doing this?"

Aidan's eyebrows furrowed. "Wha-?"

I tensed. The words I had spoken before were out of my mouth before they were checked by my brain to be safe. But Aidan had already moved slightly closer to me with interest and curiosity was sparking in his eyes, and a single look at him told me it was too late. So I continued speaking to him, and I was much too tired to utter an excuse, so I told him directly what was bothering me.

I sighed. "This...exploring."

"Are you saying you don't wait to be an explorer anymore just because you're still a hexer?"

"No. There's...other stuff involved with being an explorer."

Aidan's eyes narrowed. "Are you going to quit _now?_"

I cleared my throat. "Of course not. I plan to quit after I finish my commitment to the Radha Hall."

"Why are you going to quit, though?"

"This career isn't for me."

Aidan clasped his hand on my shoulder, the same way he did to Nicodemus not too long ago. "Pris, things get hard, but that doesn't mean you have to give up."

I barely heard his words. I tugged away from Aidan and stood up, shaking. "Aidan, I want all of us to live longer, not to die over some gold and fame!"

Aidan had reached out for me, but after my words his shoulders shifted down, and he looked at me moodily. "So this is about you turning into a coward, huh?'

"I guess, but eventually, one of us are probably going to die, maybe not even in the labyrinth, maybe because we were murdered by kidnappers. That's if we were lucky, since they would at least like to bury us, or burn us in a bonfire. Or maybe we'll be killed by large moths in the labyrinth or something. I don't like this high risk work, or us doing the killing."

Aidan frowned. "We're defending a country. Don't you find honor in that?"

"Honor in killing?"

"You're too soft right now, but it'll fade away."

I felt like that conversation would bring me nowhere, expect some possible distrust from Aidan, so I bit my lip, and turned back to the building of the Explorer's Guild. The majestic ivory white building before me was illuminated by the reddish light of the late evening, and the moon was starting to become more evident. The spring breeze gathered around the smell of cherry blossoms and made the trees shake in the wind, some of those tress already growing green leaves.

And all I could think was that I was glad to see that sight before I died, and when I thought of it I was glad of seeing the sun rise that morning, and seeing it rise yesterday. Just thinking about seeing those mere moments made me feel glad I was alive to see them, when there were so many times I could I have died before seeing them, especially with the exploring going on.

I thought about quitting being an explorer just then, telling Aidan _i__t's over_ and having to tell that to others. The image of my village flashed in my mind and I recoiled. The thought of turning to my village shamefully saying _it's over _and the villagers exchanging knowing looks made me clench my fists.

_So is that all keeping from telling Aidan __those words? Pride?_

Along with the entire commitment thing and my guilt of taking on the responsibility of the Eagles Guild, yes, pride was the only actual reason, and it was the reason that helped fester the others. Pride that would be badly meddled with if I returned to the village as a failure.

The village was scared of others with an appearance or accent that differed from them, they were scared of my mother with her blond hair and formal accent, and then they are scared of me. Mistrust was evident of their glances at us, glares when we mispronounced a word. I had to leave that place, to somewhere far away like Etria. Still, I had spent enough time there that eventually, their fear of me gave me my own fears, and Aidan seemed to confirm my fears with his baffled glances at me.

Aidan opened his mouth, and I braced myself. "Pris, are you cold? You're shivering."

"I'm fine," I muttered, stuffing my hands into my pockets. "Just fine." I relaxed, suddenly realizing that I was in a stiff position.

* * *

Aidan didn't mention the conversation to Hilda. I wouldn't have thought we had the conversation at all, but occasionally when we were in the labyrinth Aidan would give me a knowing look whenever I cleaned with a cloth the blood on my dagger fervently. I was glad it only went to that, because Aidan continued to obey my directions as usual, and the subject wasn't brought up between us for a very longtime.

Thankfully, I became rather too busy and troubled with more relevant and immediate things than my hold of leadership.

Such as the problem that Arthur, our sniper, needed much work with target practice. I met him personally at an archery competition, and he failed to impress me with his place in the contest.

Even before I knew his place in the competition, when I first saw him in person, with his shaggy red hair and light sideburns, I instinctually became skeptical of his skills at the sight of his sheepish smile.

I looked at him anxiously, then asked, "Arthur?"

"YEAH!"

Startled, I glared at him and the sniper straightened self-consciously. "You're Priscilla...right?"

"Yes..."

"I was looking for you everywhere!"

"I, uh, know. Somebody directed me here, they said you were competing today."

Arthur winced. "Well..."

"Right, how well did you do?" I asked him briskly. Arthur's face darkened and he remained silent.

Suspicious, I took a good look at the ratings board.

Glancing back to Arthur unemotionally, I said in a blank voice, "You got next to last place, didn't you?"

"At least I didn't get last!" he answered nervously.

* * *

**Author's Note**

So that was one another chapter in!

This was another chapter with a chunk of dialogue, but they're going to be in the labyrinth and impacting the storyline of the game soon. For that, I'm going to start posting the levels and skills and whatnot of the characters. I'm going to begin with posting Aidan's, because being at a higher level than the others his level would also be the most stable (and the less worked on in the group), and then I'll eventually work my way to the weaker characters who improve more significantly over time.


	10. Misty Ravine

**Author's Note**

I thought that I'd already submitted this chapter a long time ago...but apparently I didn't.

This isn't a popular story, but for the fans that were left waiting for almost a freakin' month for me to update, here it is. The stats for Aidan are going to come out for the next chapter, which will hopefully come out sooner than this one.

* * *

_Priscilla-_

_For the time being my father has stopped insisting me to be in a guild. But that isn't important right now. I'm worried about you and the rest of the guild. Everybody is speaking of the guild and Nicodemus, even people who are not explorers keep pestering me with questions. I rarely go out in public now because of that. After finding out that you had been attacked by one of the kidnappers at a pub, you obviously need to be more alert. How will it be in the labyrinth?_

_Oh God, I'm sorry on my past attitude. If there is anything I could do, I would do it. None of you really deserved the cruel way I treated you all, especially you..._

_-Cedar_

* * *

"It's so...wet here," Arthur remarked.

_That,_ I thought, _sums everything up perfectly._

The Misty Ravine's damp, dark interior was beautiful, yet chilling and mysterious. Dark green plants covered the area everywhere, the colorful flakes of orange and red flowers among them. The trees and mist covered much of the sky, though what I could see through was a sky blue curtain. The mist, it covered everything. It sticked to our clothing, it impaired our sight. We couldn't see much far from us, because usually it was all covered by the light gray fog. I would trudge close to Arthur because of that, because it seemed to me that it would be unlikely to lose Arthur's tall structure. Still we would keep getting lost for some reason. We would all walk normally, nothing seems to be wrong, yet when we try to use my map nothing would make sense. I would draw long paths that were too long for even the parchment, and my failure at mapping the floor made the others painfully annoyed at me. Even Ingrid's usual regal attitude snapped.

She sighed. "Can't you see the inference of magic lurking around?"

I stared at her.

"You know," she lashed out, her eyes full of rage, "don't the rest of you think there is some magic around? Changing our location?"

I backed away, stunned at Ingrid's sudden loss of self-control. Ingrid, realizing this, tried to soften her words, and said to me in a quiet voice, "Numbering every time we teleport might work. When we turn back to where we came from, we go back to where we are before, right? So you should write a number, for when you enter a teleporting place, and then write the same number for where we end up in after we teleport."

I bit my lip. "Teleport?"

Hilda blinked. "P-Priscilla, give me your tablet."

I frowned. "Wh-"

"Please? I know how to work a GPS for the tablet," she insisted. "Then you'll know when we teleport and...those stuff, and then you can number the exits."

"I-oh, alright," I said, passing the tablet to her. I was lucky it was covered with a waterproof cover, since the fog was making everything damp.

"Do you know what a GPS is?" asked a deep voice behind me.

I leaped forward, crashing into Arthur. Arthur yelped and shook me off. He shrieked at the sight of something behind me and bent down to hurriedly prepare his bow. Stumbling back, I turned to see the outline of a figure clothed in black. I griped the handle of my dagger.

"Priscilla, Arthur, what is wrong with you two? It's Emil," Ingrid snarled.

"Emil...?" I started.

Emil's figure became clearer. I nodded to him, and Emil held out his palm. In it was my bright red hairpin, a vivid ornament in the midst of the fog.

"Yes, it's...mine," I muttered, and I took the hairpin from his hand cautiously. "Emil, I'm so sorry. It was hard to recognize you from so far away."

Emil shrugged, and turned away from me, his raven black hair shimmering from water drops. "I should've stayed closer to you guys."

I blushed, and felt my cheek, and it too was wet because of the water drops from the mist. Dropping my gaze, I mumbled another apology and jogged to keep up with Arthur. A shiver went down my back. I had the urge to glance back at Emil, but I forced myself to resist it and instead get caught up with making the map.

There was little conversation as we walked. Aidan stayed at the inn that day. Ingrid seemed to be deep in thought, staring off to the distance. Emil walked apart from us and trailed behind the rest of his guild wearily with downcast eyes. Arthur kept looking around wildly with bright fearful eyes, and next to him, I was too distracted by cartography. As for Hilda, I believe that she was sucking lemon drops in her mouth just to give an excuse to not talk.

For the most part, I was okay with this silence, until I was almost done with the map. Once I looked up and the only thing I was doing was giving directions, the silence came to me as eerie and unsettling.

"Um, Hilda?"

Hilda glanced at me and nodded slowly, her mouth still moving to suck her lemon drops.

I hesitated. In the silence between us, I thought I heard the faint sounds of music. I stopped to hear the sounds of a distant flute whistle in the wind.

I turned to Hilda expectantly. With a frown she cocked her head, her green eyes clouded by confusion.

"Do...do you hear it?"

Biting her lower lip, Hilda lifted her head. Her eyes narrowed, and she gave me a brief glance of mistrust. I waited.

And then she heard it. Her eyes widened in awe, her mouth halting. Hilda's face brightened and the curls of a smile appeared on the edges of her lips. Joy plainly reflected her dark green eyes as she stopped and listened to the faraway music that most of us couldn't hear. Catching her breath, her tense muscles relaxed, and for the first time in a longtime, she seemed to approach a moment of pure serenity.

"It's beautiful," she whispered with barely moving lips, her eyes closing.

I gave her a little smile, though I knew she would be unable to see it. "It is, isn't it?"

"Yes..."

We both waited there for the longest moments, taken away by the music pouring through the mist. The breezes shook the trees, yet the gentle music of the flutes went on, each flute sewing threads of harmony through the tall dark trees.

A harsh grating sound broke through, and it was Ingrid from far away, scolding at us for being so behind. Hilda opened her eyes and tightened her grip on her bag as we both walked to our guild sullenly.

"I'm not...sure about her."

"Ingrid?"

"Mmm."

"She seems...alright." I studied Hilda briefly before continuing. "We hardly know her enough, and besides, shouldn't we be thinking more about the Medium?"

To be honest, I guiltily hadn't been thinking about the Medium as much as we should have. Since she was the currently the main reason we were still in Tharsis, she should have been the first person on my mind. And the guilds at Tharsis say that she is only a young girl, too! A young girl such as herself, described as being around ten years old, to be the leader of an entire civilization and then to be kidnapped, leaving that primitive civilization ungoverned...

Then I realized something.

"Shit."

"Priscilla?"

"I hadn't told our new recruits about our mission, Nicodemus, anything. They must think we're training here, or being at this place for...well, whatever the reason most Tharsis explorers come to the labyrinths for."

"They come here so they can reach Yggdrasil, Priscilla," Hilda explained in her soft, quiet voice. "They want to get to the top." Hilda pointed to the sky. "That large tree that we can see from the Skyship? The one that seems to glow green at times, the one that is so large entire lands is its shadow? It's Yggdrasil, Priscilla. There's something there, something that will change everything. We just don't know what, which makes it so enticing." Her hand dropped, and Hilda fell silent once more.

I pondered at that for a while, before remembering that the reason that I hadn't remembered Yggdrasil or noticed a big tree was by my current dilemmas, which brought me to the next question. "But Hilda, how will I drop the news to everyday else? I-"

"Watch out, Ingrid!" came Arthur's loud shout. "A mushroom-"

Hilda and I exchanged looks and drew our weapons.

"Priscilla! Why are you all the way over there, at the back?" Ingrid's voice yelled through the mist. "Formation! Don't-don't be so far!"

Gritting my teeth, I started in the mist towards to where I thought I heard my comrades. Behind me, Hilda followed with grim hesitation. We stopped when it became clear that they weren't near anymore, and nightfall began to darken our surroundings.

"Di-did we lose them?" Hilda asked.

"I...hope not."

Even as I uttered the words, I had to admit to myself that it was purely a wishful thought. We couldn't hear their voices at all anymore, and my map didn't have a teleporting place nearby marked down. Was it carelessness on my part nothing was marked? Clearly I was careless to stay so far from my guild, and I'm the damn leader.

But the music from earlier was louder here, despite the fact that we had to run away from the music earlier. Hilda and I started to walk to where the music was coming from, me in determination, and I suspect Hilda had the same mystical, joyful look in her eyes she had before.

We stopped at a door. It had strange, geometric patterns in it, evidently belonging to a different culture than mine. That simple fact made everything seem more exotic and exciting, and without thinking I opened the door and entered the world where the players of the music resided in.

* * *

Arthur's arrow shot past the weird, dancing aqua blue mushroom and instead stroke a bush. The others gave furious glares at him, but Arthur had long been used to it by now.

Though, the situation they were in made it so crucial to make every shot targeted right. It was only the three of them, medicare adventurers, against two ultra-powered mushrooms. If there was a time to make every shot count, it was _now._

* * *

I barely managed to open the heavy door. Hilda and I ran inside, and our hearts thumped rapidly as we faced the Vessels.

Their body structures were tall and thin, their skin a pale peach color and their straight hair was evidently white even in the dark. The civilization Hilda and I were surrounded by should have disappeared many years ago, yet there it sat in the labyrinth. Tall bridges were the home of shops, and parasols and tables scattered around the small kingdom. Villas were near the various marketplaces. These buildings had a strange modern touch to them, from the dark red color scheme to the durable, bold materials they were made of. All of this was under the dark trees of the Misty Ravine. And all were drenched with the signs of ruin.

For there was blood at every corner, destruction at every core of the weathered civilization, and the Vessels had bruises and wounds which they wore with inevitable shame. The Vessels had stared us in shock, hostility, and terror at Hilda's and my arrival. The music stopped completely, and weapons were being unsheathed. I couldn't blame them, seeing this mess and these pitiable people. Dipping my head, I said, "I am Priscilla, of the Blackwing Tribe. Please, I wish us to be allies."

They stared at us, and I wondered how we seemed to them, as people of a distant land. No, to them we were a different species, in fact. Would they even know our language? My heart quickened, and I studied their completely natural, leafy clothing in fear. If they misunderstood my greeting, this could have been the end of me. And this was a world where a young girl was the entire government. How would they approach me?

One of them came forward, a lance in hand. "Foreigner, the people such as yourself came here, and soon afterwards our Medium was taken. We beg of you to leave."

From his voice, I judged him to be male, though his hair was longer than mine. A lily pad draped on the side of his face covered his eyes, though I badly wanted to make eye contact.

I turned to Hilda. Her face, paled by this newest shock, was twisted in her fear and confusion. I placed my hand on her right shoulder, which she responded with by a quick shove of her left hand. She turned to me, her green eyes dim in the moonlight that creeped through the thick trees. "Priscilla..."

I swallowed, and turned back to the Vessels. "We came from Tharsis to find your Medium, in fact. We will do what it takes to bring her back to safety."

The Vessel hissed. "Another from Tharsis?"

_Why? What did the last guild from Tharsis do?_ I thought. _Why didn't the Count warn us properly?_

"We do not wish you or your people ill," I said carefully. "What I believe in is the hope to foster...to foster an eon of understanding and peace between our two societies. I'm not aware of what people from Tharsis have done, but I can tell you that we mean well." Hilda nodded, but her eyes seemed clouded.

"Very well," the Vessel said. He turned to the rest of the Vessels, and suddenly I was reminded of the rest of my guild, fighting monsters.

"Sir," I croaked. "My guild had separated earlier. Have they came here?"

The Vessel turned back to me, and again I had the urge to toss that lily pad out of his face. What did he look like under the lily pad? What emotions were in his eyes? Was it mistrust, fury, or sympathy?

"No," he said, his voice as unreadable as his face. "Besides the other guild, you and your companion are the first in...a long time to visit."

I nodded, a shiver coming down my back. "It is of upmost importance to find them. We must be on our way," I added, gesturing to Hilda and I.

The Vessel gave a nod back, and I breathed with relief. "We too have some lost," he said. "Wufan, the mentor of our young Medium, has also been missing."

"I will be sure to inform you lot if I spot her," I answered without thinking. Then, realizing I used slang, I amended, "I mean, I will come back here if I see Wufan. May you tell me about her appearance?"

They gave me her appearance, which I wrote on a side note in my map. After a more respectful farewell, I left the civilization. Hilda and I hadn't walked long before we heard again the beautiful, sweet flute music again.

* * *

At this point, Arthur was pretty sure he was going to die. Or at least, Emil or Ingrid was going to. Without healing, they weren't going to survive for long, and Hilda had all the healing supplies and everything. Though Arthur did have a nifty Ariadne Thread curled in his coat pocket...

Still, Arthur couldn't believe himself when he said, "We have to leave without them."

Ingrid glared at him, but Emil looked down at his swollen ankle and winced from the pain. When he looked up, he gave a shaky nod.


End file.
